Memento Analysis

This is the producer of the film. The title is bold and stands out. This is so that the audience will not miss it. Every opening sequence will have the title of the production company.

The opening titles are very plain. Nothing about the film is given away. Epic music can be heard which is eerie but the audience can still not tell the genre of the film.

The black screen then fades into a hand holding a gory picture. The hand belongs to a male but that is all that is given away. The mysterious man also has a tattoo on his hand. The audience will be asking themselves why is this man holding a picture of a dead person and is he the killer?

Everytime the man shakes the picture it fades more, but the picture can still be made out. Both these shots are extreme close ups which indicates the importance of both the man holding the photo and the photo itself.

It is now very hard to make out the dead figure in the picture. The fading away process is very slow and it forces the audience to think about the dead person. 'Why are they dead?', 'Are they a bad person?'

We then see the photo being put back into the camera, which is confusing because that is obviously not how a camera works. Still, the director does not reveal the man holding the camera. They want to keep his identity hidden for as long as possible. This is because they want to build the audience's curiosity. Now we can see that the man is taking a picture of the dead person. Why?

The photo then goes back into the camera which gives the audience the sense that the film is being played backwards because photos do not go back into cameras. Still we do not know the identity of the man. Editing is slow and controlled. The audience can be given the impression that the man is either a investigator into the killing or the murderer.

Finally the mans face is shown to the audience and we presume he is the main character. However, his face is dirty and he is breathing heavy which suggests to the audience that there has been a struggle between the two men. The man is still looking intently at the dead body on the floor who has no identity because the audience have not been shown his face, just his remains.

This shot is of the blood on the floor or wall, it is running backwards. This reinforces the fact that the film is being played backwards and that maybe the director is showing the end of the film at the beginning for a reason. The image of blood running on the floor is very violent. Also, it is a close up shot, which might shock the audience and it's quite clear to them now... this film is a thriller.

The editing is now has a faster pace, showing the remains on the scene of the killing. This is a close up of the bullet case which we presume held the bullet that has killed the man laying on the floor. The close up shows it's importance, which reinforces the fact that it is the case of the murderers bullet.

It cuts to a pair of blood splattered glasses that lay on the floor. These may be the murderers or the victims glasses, it isn't made clear. All we know is that there is blood on the wall, the blood of the victim. This wasn't a quiet or quick murder. The murderer has made it very violent which may mean that the victim deserved it.

There is now a close up of the victim. He has a bullet hole in the back of his head. Which can suggest he was shot from behind and may not have expected it, which makes it now seem that the murderer could have shot the victim in cold blood. The image is very graphic and would intregue the audience into wanting to watch further to see in the victim deserved it or not?

The clip is still being played backwards as we see the gun go back to the killers hand, he is still intently staring at the body and looking very calm and collected. He seems to know what he's doing and the audience are now asking why? Why did this man kill the other?

A second close up on the bullet case is show as it moves from the spot it landed. This therefore concludes that the bullet case held the bullet that killed the man who lays on the floor.

There is a close up of the gun on the back of the victims head, ready to fire. The victim has his back to the murderer. It could be that the victim was ready for his death and knew he had done wrong or could it be that he was an innocent man?

The bullet moves back into the gun (as the clip is playing backwards) and theres a extreme close up on the mans hand holding to gun to reinforce that he is the killer. The editing is still fast, which could show the panic and struggle both men faced in the run up to this scene.

There is now a very clear midshot of the man holding the gun in the direction of the victim. Therefore, this finally proves that he is the killer. However, now the audience want to know why he is the killer and what did the victim do to deserve being shot in the back of the head?

This is a very succsessful opening as it allows the audience to become engaged and trigger questions in the first 30 seconds of the film. Therefore, the audience are more likly to watch the whole film because they want to find out what happened to lead up to this very graphic and violent murder.