During our lessons we have also watched the opening to the Thriller ‘Memento’ which was directed by Christopher Nolan (2000).
The opening of the film is full of mystery and gives the audience many narrative enigmas (questions in the audience's mind that need to be answered). It seems as though the story is being told from the end to the beginning which at first confuses the audience. It is only later on as the film progresses that the audience realise what is going on. Right at the beginning of the film we see Leonard kill Teddy and the audience need to keep watching to find out what had triggered off his need to kill him. The opening of the film is unusual for Thrillers as it starts straight with the action.
The Polaroid at the start of the film creates mystery as it undevelops itself and then goes back into the camera. The phone call we can see also adds to the mystery as the audience do not know who Leonard is talking to or what about.
The word ‘memento’ makes the audience think of a memory or an object which has significant importance to someone.
Leonard’s character seems to be on some sort of a quest or mission as we straight away see him kill Teddy.
The audience feel sympathy towards Leonard as he suffers from memory loss since an accident and cannot remember anything from a certain time in his life onwards. In order to remind himself of the things he must remember, he tattoos messages on his body and takes lots of Polaroid pictures and writes notes on them. The audience know that he is seeking revenge on Teddy and they are led to believe that he is the one who killed Leonard’s wife. The audience think that perhaps he is a confused hero.
However, due to his accident, Leonard was left vulnerable to the society around him and those close to him. There is an aspect of his character which the audience cannot trust.
The character of Teddy seems trustworthy at first, the audience feel he can be trusted; it is as though Leonard trusts him too. He seems like a good guy as he seems to be on Leonard’s side, helping along on his mission. It is only when we see Leonard kill him and the story progresses that we realise that we cannot in fact trust him. He is the villain of the piece and begins to emerge as dodgy.
This Thriller allows the audience to consider many narrative enigmas. They consider; what happened to Leonard? How did he loose his memory? Who is Teddy? What is his role? Who is Natalie? Is Leonard justified in killing Teddy?
The action in the film is accompanied by an eerie soundtrack which creates a sombre, dark mood.
The Mise-en-Scene helps with ideas about the narrative and the characters. Leonard’s car has dirty, broken windows which creates mystery. It makes the audience wonder where he has been and what he has been doing in order to get the car into this state. The motel is cheap and safe for Leonard. It adds another degree to the storyline. The isolated building creates a mystery element. It allows Leonard to commit a crime undetected.
The opening of the film is full of mystery and gives the audience many narrative enigmas (questions in the audience's mind that need to be answered). It seems as though the story is being told from the end to the beginning which at first confuses the audience. It is only later on as the film progresses that the audience realise what is going on. Right at the beginning of the film we see Leonard kill Teddy and the audience need to keep watching to find out what had triggered off his need to kill him. The opening of the film is unusual for Thrillers as it starts straight with the action.
The Polaroid at the start of the film creates mystery as it undevelops itself and then goes back into the camera. The phone call we can see also adds to the mystery as the audience do not know who Leonard is talking to or what about.
The word ‘memento’ makes the audience think of a memory or an object which has significant importance to someone.
Leonard’s character seems to be on some sort of a quest or mission as we straight away see him kill Teddy.
The audience feel sympathy towards Leonard as he suffers from memory loss since an accident and cannot remember anything from a certain time in his life onwards. In order to remind himself of the things he must remember, he tattoos messages on his body and takes lots of Polaroid pictures and writes notes on them. The audience know that he is seeking revenge on Teddy and they are led to believe that he is the one who killed Leonard’s wife. The audience think that perhaps he is a confused hero.
However, due to his accident, Leonard was left vulnerable to the society around him and those close to him. There is an aspect of his character which the audience cannot trust.
The character of Teddy seems trustworthy at first, the audience feel he can be trusted; it is as though Leonard trusts him too. He seems like a good guy as he seems to be on Leonard’s side, helping along on his mission. It is only when we see Leonard kill him and the story progresses that we realise that we cannot in fact trust him. He is the villain of the piece and begins to emerge as dodgy.
This Thriller allows the audience to consider many narrative enigmas. They consider; what happened to Leonard? How did he loose his memory? Who is Teddy? What is his role? Who is Natalie? Is Leonard justified in killing Teddy?
The action in the film is accompanied by an eerie soundtrack which creates a sombre, dark mood.
The Mise-en-Scene helps with ideas about the narrative and the characters. Leonard’s car has dirty, broken windows which creates mystery. It makes the audience wonder where he has been and what he has been doing in order to get the car into this state. The motel is cheap and safe for Leonard. It adds another degree to the storyline. The isolated building creates a mystery element. It allows Leonard to commit a crime undetected.
EVALUATION:
- how did this film influence our final ideas:
The opening of the film is full of mystery and gives the audience many narrative enigmas. We wanted to have this effect too so we decided to begin our film at a place where the audience will not know why these events have happened leaving them confused and wanting answers.
this film used Polaroid pictures
We thought that the use of the Polaroid during the film was an interesting aspect of it so we wanted to have a similar effect. We wanted to have a Polaroid picture of the house the character enters. However, as we were unable to get a Polaroid camera, we decided to use a written address instead.
We also liked the way Leonard had tattoos over his body. We thought this was very effective in attracting the audience and also created narrative enigmas for them such as why does he have everything tattooed to him? We decided to develop this idea, and this is where our idea of the numbers on the body's came from. We had the number '23' 'carved' onto the dead body's arm and the number '24' carved onto the main characters leg.
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