Analysis of Memento 1+2

Analysis of Memento 1:
The first frame of the opening sequece is the title of the film. The title of the film has each of the letters seperated; these are a connotation of the different fragments of the film. The font looks like Times New Roman, which doesn't make the title seem any more unique than any other title, as the font used is common. The colouring of the font is blue, which contrasts with the black background. This is used so that the title stands out in the frame, and grabs an audiences attention where it hopes to continue doing so during the rest of the film. The title is also directly in the centre of the frame, as this would most probably make it more visuably clear and upfront for the viewers.

The second frame is very cleverly constructed as in uses connotations of the theme of the film visually and through the title of the film. Yet again, the title of the film 'Memento' is still directly centered in the middle of the frame. I was unaware of what the word 'memento' meant, and therefore researched it on the internet. I later found out that a 'memento' was a little keepsake object that reminds you of someone, or somewhere. Moreover, instead of the background being plain black, is has captured a close up still image of a hand holding a polaroid in his hand. This is a connotation of the main character's personality, as everytime he shakes the image on the polaroid it slowly fades, just like his memory does throughout the film. The polaroid is a representation of the main characters life, as if he didn't have these photographs his memories would start fading; the photographs are all his memory has.

The third image is also a close up of the main characters facial expression so that the audience can witness and experience the emotion that this character is currently feeling. However, the audience may be concerned with the characters facial expression, as it is kind of stern and emotionless. His eyes also appear as if they're looking down at something, which we presume is the photograph. As no emotion is really forseen in this image, it could be suggested that this character committed this killing. This would arouse suspicion within the audience as stereotypically in all genre's of films the main character is not the 'bad guy.' This leaves the audience slightly intrigued and would encourage them to keep watching to see what happens. Also, there are no props used on the characters face like fake stitchings or blood. This connotes that it wasn't self defense, as there seems to be no struggling on his term and therefore suggests that this indeed was murder.

The fourth frame shows the forground being a pair of upside down glasses, in contrast to the background which shows walls covered in blood. The fact that the walls are a washed out, pasty colour suggests that the director deliberately wanted the blood to stand out amoungst the wall in the background. The glasses in the foreground are not directly in the centre of the frame; this also suggests that they are not meant to be the main focus of the frame. Moreover, the fact that the glasses are shown upside down suggests that the series of events in this film are not all they seem, and appear to be a connotation of things being shown in a opposite way. For example, the film starts near the end, and rewinds itself in order to demonstrate to the audience the events that occured which led up to this scene. You could arguably say that this shot shows signs of vulnerability, as as whoever glasses these were clearly needed them for seeing, and now were left at a disadvantage in the film. It shows a status of power without really letting us get to know the characters yet. It connotes that whoever glasses these were, their power can be given to them as quikly as it can be taken away.

The next frame of the opening sequence is a mid shot of what presume is a dead body, but only allows us as an audience to see from the shoulders upwards. This is a more focused image of the second image, which showed it in a polaroid. This suggests that this wasn't a picture that the main character found, but took. This leads the audience to believe even more than this man committed the crime, because if you found a dead body the first thing you would do is ring the police, not taken a photo of it. However, maybe he took this photo so that he could remind himself to ring the police, as people could forget that the main character has memory loss. These initial ideas would intrigue an audience even more as there are so many options as to what might have happened, and keep the audience interested and on edge. Although the dead persons face is shown face down, suggesting that his identity is yet to be revealed, and wants to keep the audience guessing yet again.

The last shot is a contrast to the majority of the other shots. It looks almost prestine clean, and has connotations of peace and sincerity. However, the audience are fully aware that a death occured here, and are probably trying to identify the odd splashes of blood and so forth. The director has used a close up of the bullet so the bullet doesn't seem out of proportion. This gives the bullet a God-like status, as the representation of gold also suggests power and money. Even though the bullet is clearly not a character in the film, this shots gives the bullet almost a personification of human abilities, as it seems powerful and in charge. However, this bullet has connotations of danger and pain, and therefore most of the colours that are used in this frame are washed out and look dirty.



Was Memento a successful thriller opening sequence?
Overall, I think that Memento has an extremely clever and successful opening sequence. It uses a range of cleverly used close ups and mid shots so that the audience can really start to interpret their view and opinion of the film. It has very well constructed connotations, and subjects the audience to really involving themselves in the film. The suspenseful music really adds to the intense atmosphere and setting. It is filmed beautifully, as every shot could be used as a picture. The use of mise-en-scene is played down but is still very relevant to the opening sequence. As well as it having a brilliant opening sequence it is almost an extremely well scripted and acted film.