Analysis of the opening of Memento

The opening of memento begins with a prolonged close up of a mans hand holding a photo of blood from a polaroid camera. There is non-diegetic sounds of an eeire soundtrack which builds up tension for the viewers. The sounds are effective because they represent the event very well. This scene is held for around 10 seconds untill he shakes the photo to reveal the image. It is almost as though he has been frozen in this position, possibly even shocked at what he sees in the photo. On the other hand the delayed time in holding the photo in this fixed position may be related to the development time of the photo to fully appear. However the audience soon notices that as the time continues the photo fades into darkness until it disappears or even returns to the state of when it first comes out of the polaroid. This assumption that the audience is inclines to make is further backed up by the proceeding shots of the photo being inserted back through the camera. During this scene the titles of the film are shown in a contrasting blue colour which stand out against the warm coloured scene (blood and skin) and essentially creates a hot and cold vibe. As the clip continues, a gun, a man being shot and a bullet is shown; that's when the audience realise that the clip is being played in rewind or reverse, showing what happened from the end to the start. At this moment there may be a sense of surprise and enlightment for the audience as this is far from typical cinematography.

We are then shown the male character wearing a suit, who kills someone by shooting at them with a gun. The man then takes a photo of the scene which creates assumptions of who the man could be and his role in the movie. Non diegetic sound follows, with a extreme close up of the man. There is not much light on him as he is looking to the right which creates tension. There is then another extreme close up of the man picking up his keys and then a close up of the man. The lighting remains fairly dark in the room. There are then shots of the furniture in the room and then a medium shot of the man on the bed looking confused.