Analysis of opening of Memento!!

I’ve decided to analyse the opening of memento, a typical thriller film; in this analysis I decided to focus more on the credits and the introduction of characters as opposed to focusing purely on the camera, lighting and editing etc. I will still be including these aspects but mainly to show how the characters are introduced.





Credits:

The credits are very simple, and they begin straight away with the first clip, along with the beginning of the music. The title of the film ‘Memento’ is the first credit that comes up, and in the background there is a picture of what seems to be a person on the floor surrounded by blood. This immediately sets up a violent and gruesome atmosphere, but it’s also mysterious as many questions arise from the picture. The colour of the text is light blue and the font is very plain and simple, also the text is in the centre of the screen so we are drawn to the title. In our film we could integrate the title at the beginning along with a certain background picture to set a certain atmosphere; we should also think about what colours and font to use if we want to portray a certain image of the opening.

How characters are introduced:

‘Leonard':
The first time we see Lenny is a close up of his face, which seems to have blood on one side – straight away from this we assume he has killed someone as he is also looking down perhaps at the victim, but as we don’t know if he is the antagonist or protagonist we cannot make an assumption of if he is likable or not. This shot is also at a slightly low angle therefore making him look important, this establishes him as character with power. Also this first shot we see of him has chiaroscuro lighting, this type of lighting usually connotes mystery or a hidden narrative linked to this character. We then see him shoot a man; therefore we conclude that he is probably an antagonist as we don’t know why he shot the man. As there is a lot of narrative retardation it’s difficult to come to a clear conclusion about this character so far, however this makes the audience want to watch on to find out everything about this mysterious character.

The scene then changes into a black and white scene – this is quite unusual for a thriller film, however the black and white suggests that something in his world is not normal, and I think the use of black and white in these shots to show when we are listening to Lenny’s inner monologue is used very well as it shows the audience must focus on what he’s saying in these scenes to find out about the storyline. Again chiaroscuro lighting is used on a close up of his face, so although we feel close to him and we can see his emotions – he is still mysterious. The high angle shot of him sitting on his bed changes the way the audience have seen this character so far – firstly as it is a high angle shot, he looks belittled and weak so we begin to pity him, also his costume adds to him looking belittled as he is in his pyjamas looking scruffy – a complete contrast to the suit he was wearing in the last scene. The black and white in this scene could connote darkness or depression, so we link this character – who now seems quite important as we are hearing about him – with depression and mystery.

When he says “It’s Leonard.” In an assertive and confident tone to the man with glasses, we assume that he is a confident man who stands up for himself; also he seems to reply with a serious tone of voice to the joke of the man who says “Lenny!” this makes him seem extremely uptight and we feel slightly scared of him. In the next clip Leonard says “it’s not good to make fun of someone’s handicap” – this reveals something about him that the audience didn’t know before, and as we know he has a handicap we feel sorry for him, but now we know slightly more about him we become attached to this character as we want to know everything about him and the clips we have seen beforehand.

The fact that he drives the car as opposed to the man with glasses suggests he’s the leader in this relationship and the man with glasses is his sidekick. In the car park at the abandoned setting, Leonard walks away and the camera follows him instead of staying on the man with glasses – therefore showing he is the more important character and the
audience should pay attention to him. We then see him looking through pictures that seem to remind him of certain thing, we figure out that he perhaps has some memory problems – this makes the audience respect him as he seems to have a respectable job with a handicap problem.

From the first 5 minutes or so we learn a lot about Leonard – he is a stereotypical male, with some sort of detective job or goal, and we learn that although he is a conventional male in
a thriller, his handicap means that information is held back from the audience also, almost like we only know what he can remember – therefore we are supposed to sympathise with him and we will probably go through the film following him.

Man with glasses:

The first shot we see of him is an eye level medium shot, suggesting he is equal to Leonard. He is chewing gum throughout the clip which often connotes that the character is relaxed and laid back. The first thing he says is a joke; “LENNY!” so straight away he comes across as a fun person, so the audience like him, also he pats Leonard on the back so we think they are close friends – making us like them as a pair. His clothing is not as smart as Leonards, so we assume he isn’t as powerful as Leonard and his perhaps just a sidekick. Throughout the clip there is key lighting on the man with glasses, bright key lighting is usually used for protagonists so we think he is a good guy – because Leonard thinks he is a good guy. However as soon as Leonard knows he is bad, we are led to believe he is bad through dark shadowy lighting on him.

As soon as Leonard realises he is the man he needs to kill, the camera angles change so that we see the man with glasses like Leonard does – not as an equal but as an antagonist. For example the whole way through the clip there are eye level shots on him, however when he is on the floor with Leonard pointing the gun at him there is an over the shoulder high angle shot on the man with glasses. From this short clip we have two completely different views of the man with glasses – at first, from the camera angles, his costume, lighting and miese-en-scene we are led to believe firstly that he is a protagonist and then contrastingly that he is an
antagonist.

I think all the techniques used in this short clip are used really well to show that Leonard is the main character and that we are supposed to follow him and figure out his storyline. The characters are introduced to how Leonard see’s them.

:D:D:D