The second half of the keyword refers to Christopher Nolan’s neo-noir masterpiece, (2000). Starring Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia, the film is famous for its reverse-chronological narrative structure.
The corporeal index is irreversible. Unlike a digital file, a tattoo cannot be overwritten without leaving a trace (scarification). Therefore, the body becomes a palimpsest of conflicting indexes. Leonard’s body is not a memory bank; it is a crime scene of self-deception. The Index of the Memento here functions as a binding mechanism —it fixes a conclusion, freezing the interpretive process, and thereby enabling action in the absence of time. index of memento