Analysis of Memento Opening

Memento (2000) is directed by Chris Nolan whose other works include Inception and The Dark Knight. The main plot is of a man suffering from memory loss who is hunting for the man who killed his wife.

The film begins, after the titles of the distribution and production companies, with the words MEMENTO in a serif blue font with a black background. The music is the main indicator to the audience of the genre being a more tense thriller with the loud, dramatic strings creating an apprehensive atmosphere. The shot fades into an extreme close-up of a hand holding a polaroid photograph. The names titles change over the frame and the actual photo appears to be of a corpse with a large amount of red blood around it. As the unidentified character then shakes the polaroid photo as the names continue to show in the centre of the frame the photo appears to be fading. The long title sequence creates tension as the poignant music and disturbing picture gives the audience a sense of foreboding. This continues as the names finally end with the director's name last and the camera pans to follow the movement of the hand still keeping the audience unaware of the full understanding of what is happening. As the camera finally pans up to the character's face we feel a sense of confusion as the photograph is placed back in the polaroid camera and then the flash appears. The mise-en-scene of the male character is that he is wearing a suit and is very precise as there is two cut-ins of seeing him put items in his suit. What confuses the audience even more is that there is a close up of blood on a wall except for that it is running upwards. There is then a close-up of a bullet and some glasses and the actual lengths of the shots are very long which draws in the audience. The quiet eerie music sustains the prolonged tension and as there is a mid angle shot of the main character looking down at the dead body, the audience becomes aware of the shots being played in reverse as the gun flies up into the man's hand and then there is an extreme close-up of the bullet going back into the gun. Then the gun is finally fired by the man however then the shouting of the other man on the floor is heard. 
       This opening to a thriller film is quite effective as many of the close-ups never reveal the whole scenario to the audience which draws them in to try and piece together what the plot is about. Particularly in this film, the opening creates an idea of what the plot is basically about as the confusion of events echoes the idea of the protagonist having amnesia and how he has to piece together his own memory. The aspect I found interesting was how the enigma was created as it was unclear that the sequence of shots were being played backwards until the very end and even though a long opening the tension increased with this for the audience to gain an understanding of the film.