"Following"s success afforded Nolan the opportunity to make "Memento" (2000), which became his breakthrough film. His brother Jonathan pitched the idea to him, about a man with anterograde amnesia who uses notes and tattoos to hunt for his wife's murderer. Jonathan worked the idea into a short story, "Memento Mori" (2001), while Nolan developed it into a screenplay that told the story in reverse. Aaron Ryder, an executive for Newmarket Films, said it was "perhaps the most innovative script I had ever seen". The film was optioned and given a budget of $4.5million, with Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss in the starring roles. "Memento" premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2000 to critical acclaim. Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" wrote in his review, "I can't remember when a movie has seemed so clever, strangely affecting and slyly funny at the very same time." Basil Smith, in the book "The Philosophy of Neo-Noir", draws a comparison with John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", which argues that conscious memories constitute our identities, a theme that Nolan explores in the film. The film was a box-office success and received many accolades, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for its screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination. "Memento" was considered by numerous critics to be one of the best films of the 2000s. In 2017, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".