There is also a similarity in the portrayal of women in both films. For example, Natalie in "Memento" manipulates Leonard, because of his faulty memory. Leonard is driven to avenge a wife whom he seems to regard in extremely idealistic terms. This suggests that a kind of virgin/whore complex attitude towards women is harbored by the main character. Although Fellini's film seems slightly more positive in the way that it views women, it also tends to portray women as either pristine, highly virginal women or mothers, or sexual, earthy goddesses. Women exist less as characters than as metaphorical or visual embodiments for how men see women, and how men remember the influence of women in their lives, as either children, or even in the short-term past. Fellini's film ultimately suggests that looking backward with perhaps an overly idealized view of women and childhood is not necessarily a bad thing. Memory can be life-sustaining, and help the individual psychologically...

But memory, in "Memento" is shown as a dark force. True, the fact that Leonard has lost his memory is his torment, and creates the series of tragedies that unfold throughout the film's complex structure. But what Leonard thinks is stored in his long-term memory, his driving quest and reason for living, is, so he believes, intact and pure. This specious long-term quest fuels his murderous purpose and rage. Memory, both films demonstrate, is who we are -- not our history, but how our present selves remember or cannot remember relevant details of our past. The adult Titta still has a sense of affection for his past because of the man he is today, just as Leonard's rage makes even the faulty and imperfect snapshots of memory he possesses a source of lasting negative influence in the world.
Works Cited

Amarcord." Directed by Federico Fellini. 1973.

Memento." Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2000.