Opening Sequence to Memento

Memento (2002) -


Titles: Blue writing on a black back ground, this emits a cold feeling to its viewers when watching, I believe Christopher Nolan (Director) chose this because the colour blue symbolises cold.

Shots: Over the shoulder extreme close up shot of Guy Pearce holding a photo of a crime scene, where the picture is so horrific we are drawn to it it as the audience and asking questions, how this crime was committed? Who is the person holding the photo graph?


Movement: The camera is very steady through out, this is very effective as it is like we are watching what he is doing. If this were done in hand held and was not fixed I don't think it would have been as effective, It would have made us feel we were meant to be a POV of someone else who is watching instead of ourselves watching the scene. This is a lot more creepy and tense as we are watching with our own intentions.

Generic Themes: The character of Guy Pearce as we see throughout the opening sequence is trying to remember things constantly, we don't know whats wrong with him but we know he has a form of amnesia. No voice over at the start of the opening of the movie just dialogue, however as Guy gets more vulnerable and is trying to recapture memory we hear a voice over of Guy's thoughts, this is effective as it tells the audience what is going through his head so we feel connected to Guy.

Sound: Always low, adds a eerie atmosphere in background. The music is at its peak as the tittles come on.

Mise-en-scene:

Camera is established as a key object in the scene, with his memory and comes in to play later in the film.

Black and white is used to show the character's confusion and where he can't create new memories his unorganised of his life having to write notes for him self. Using black and white you could also say the colour has gone from his life having to live a disadvantaged life.

Where he is in a motel it says something about his life style, this could mean he has a unstable (not having a home), lonely, has a steady income or has generated money from somewhere.

Evaluation: I really liked the opening of Momento, I felt the use of the voice over was very effective by building connection between the audience and Guy Pearce. The music I thought was effetcive as it helped to build tensioon in the opening credit to capture the audience from the start. I also loved the structure of the opening slowly revealing the very complexed character of Guy Pearce, this is very interesting and inspiring to watch, it was a clever and exciting way to tell the story of this percific character.