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Every distributor passed on Memento
Every distributor passes
The film follows a man who loses his short-term memory and tries to solve his wife's murder by tattooing clues on his body, and it is told backward. Nolan was 27 when he got hot on the idea, and rather than being discouraged by his rejection from film school, he pushed ahead. Distributors loved it and passed anyway, each with the same line: this is great, we want to work with you, but it's not for us.
Once you make a film you burrow into it so deeply that you can't see it anymore. The only thing left to do is trust your initial instincts and tell yourself that this is what you made and it's going to work.
The Venice premiere
Memento premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2000. Nolan's films end abruptly on a sudden flourish, and for a few seconds the room was completely silent. He thought they hated it and was frightened. Then there was an enormous standing ovation, and it was the turning point of his life.
How does a film tell its story backward?
In Memento, the color scenes run in reverse order, each one ending where the previous one began. Black-and-white scenes run forward in time, and the two strands meet near the end of the film. The structure puts the audience in the same position as the main character, who cannot remember what just happened. The story is based on a short story called Memento Mori by Nolan's brother Jonathan.
Why do distributors pass on films they admire?
Distributors buy films they believe they can sell to a wide audience, and admiring a film is a separate judgment from predicting its sales. A story told backward is hard to summarize in a trailer or a poster line, which makes it a harder sell. Rejections like this are common even for films that later succeed. Memento went on to receive Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
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