Nice to see we’re not the only ones obsessed with Memento.
If you’ve ever found yourself rewatching Memento just to work out what you missed the first time, you’re in good company.
Christopher Nolan’s breakout neo-noir is getting a one-night-only live reimagining in Sydney this August, with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard drummer Michael “Cavs” Cavanagh performing an entirely new percussion score alongside the film.
Presented by Hear My Eyes at City Recital Hall on Saturday, August 29, the performance replaces the original soundtrack with a live score built and performed solely by Cavanagh across three percussion stations.
The music has been created to follow the film’s shifting pace and structure, offering a different way to experience one of Nolan’s most acclaimed films.
The project reunites Cavanagh with Hear My Eyes founder and creative director Haydn Green, who said they’d wanted to collaborate on a percussion-focused performance since working together on Suspiria.
“Memento is the perfect fit,” Green said. “It’s a film about one mind trying to piece itself together, and having one performer build the entire score live in front of an audience felt like the right way to approach it.”
Hear My Eyes has become known for pairing cult films with original live scores, with previous screenings including Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Hellraiser and Chopper.
Released in 2000, Memento stars Australian actor Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man living with short-term memory loss while trying to track down his wife’s killer.
Its reverse chronological storytelling helped establish Christopher Nolan as one of the most distinctive filmmakers of his generation, and the film has only grown in reputation since.
For King Gizzard fans, it’s a chance to see one of the band’s most inventive musicians in a completely different setting.
For everyone else, it’s a good excuse to revisit one of the best thrillers of the 21st century.
