Claim: The main character of Memento uses tattoos to monitor information he cannot remember.

Memento is a 2000 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed and written by Christopher Nolan , and produced by Suzanne and Jennifer Todd . The film 's script was based on a pitch by Jonathan Nolan , who later wrote the story `` Memento Mori '' from the concept . It stars Guy Pearce , Carrie-Anne Moss , and Joe Pantoliano .   Pearce stars as a man who , as a result of a past trauma , suffers from anterograde amnesia , the inability to form new memories and suffers short-term memory loss approximately every five minutes . He is searching for the persons who attacked him and killed his wife , using an intricate system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos to track information he can not remember . Memento is presented as two different sequences of scenes interspersed during the film : a series in black-and-white that is shown chronologically , and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order -LRB- simulating for the audience the mental state of the protagonist -RRB- . The two sequences `` meet '' at the end of the film , producing one complete and cohesive narrative .   Memento premiered on September 5 , 2000 , at the Venice International Film Festival and was released in European theaters starting in October . It became a blockbuster success , being acclaimed by critics who praised its nonlinear narrative structure and motifs of memory , perception , grief , and self-deception , and earning $ 39.7 million over a $ 9 million budget . It received numerous accolades , including Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing . The film was subsequently ranked one of the best films of the 2000s by several critics and media outlets .