Textual Film Analysis 3: Memento

Film Opening 3

Memento

Memento is a hybrid genre film of mystery and drama.Its a non-linear narrative structure that matches the character Leonardo Shelby. He remembers things in short period of time but still maintains the investigation of his wife's murder.So the audience see the film like Leonard sees his life, fragmented and out of order.

The film is told backwards with scenes jumping back in fifteen minutes increments of story time.The reverse order for the film is cut by a chronological sequence, so every few minutes the film is cut.The end of the film meets the beginning of Leonard's story. In order for the film to maintain comprehensive, relational editing was used.Two scenes are connected in reverse order plot, by repeating the first few seconds of a scene in conclusion of a scene that appears later.

Leonard suffers from short term memory loss, where he remembers everything before the tragic incident of his wife's death.However he cannot make new memories after that, so every fifteen minutes he forgets what he was doing or where he's going.This matches the convection because his life is full of mysteries like:

 e.g What happened to his wife?

 How long has she been dead? 

Who killed her?

What did he do before he forgot everything?

 Did he kill anyone?

The location is unknown because it doesn't clearly show where he is.But he is indoors, possibly in a motel or abandoned house.Since most of the shots on the characters are close ups I couldn't tell what their costume are.But from what I could see I would say they are wearing casual clothing which would suggest they are regular people.The props used are a polaroid camera, glasses, gun and its bullets.

The typography of the text is a sharp edged and clear formal font.It is presented all in capital letters which signifies its importance.The font is a bright blue set on a dark background which grabs the audiences attention.

The first scene is also the last scene of the film, so the film turns around in a circle.Also it is in reverse, showing the scene from the end to the beginning.

This is a close up of a photo being held and we see the final result of the instant photo before it was taken.So the photo is seen as it becomes less developed to a point where it shows who took the photo.

In this shot we follow the photo by a pan to the left and a tilt upwards.This focus is on the the subject matter which is the photo being placed into the camera(eye line match).

Again another tilt upward is used to reveal the person's face.Here is an extreme close up of the man's face, this helps to show his shocked facial expression.

Although after the opening scene there is narration, the opening scene has no narration. However the music (non diegetic sound) that is played is weird and this gives the audience a confused odd feeling to it.

The pace of the film is slow at first this matches the reverse movements and the music played .But when the film starts to reverse to the beginning the pace becomes faster to match the movements of the man.

Here we see the the bullet fly up back into the guns barrel and the dead man coming to life after the sound of the shot.

The first shot is a mid-shot of the gun returning to the mans hand from the ground, this shows his actions clearly.

While the second shot is a close up shot of the guy on the ground screaming right before he gets shot.Most of the film opening is diegetic sound, like the camera and gun shooting.Foley sounds would have been used to create the sound of the gun shot.

Low key lighting is used to create a contrast of shadows, which makes it look mysterious and interesting.Also continuity editing is used, as well as fast cuts which makes the change of shots look smooth.