MEMENTO
MEMENTO has a prominent point that the time line is using nonlinear system, it
made the film going in the way that audience hard to guess that what has been
happened in the past. The main character (Leonard Shelby) has a very short
memory, so it’s not only the audience doesn’t know what is going on, but Shelby
doesn’t know as well, when he met some one, character might know him, but he
can’t remember anyone at all, so he needs to introduce himself every time. This
movie has two timelines, one is showing normally but it is showing in black &
white, and he is always talking to someone on the phone, which he might not
know that guy, he also found a note on his body says that he shouldn’t talk to the
guy on the phone, so it was quite scary, talking to someone you don’t know, this
timeline always a voice over of Shelby as well, another one is showing in color,
but it playing from back to front and it is cross cutting between these two
timelines, and merging it at the end. Shelby is trying to find out who is the killer
that killed his wife, this part of the film make the story mystery, which is a kind
of thriller film. When Shelby thinks about something in the past, the color will be
pale and the vision will not be clear, because he can’t remember everything, he
can only remember something but very roughly.
The key thing that helps Shelby is his Polaroid camera that can take a Polaroid
photo that can’t be torn (the only way to destroy it is to burn), because he can’t
remember anything, so he needs something that remind him about what is he
doing at that time by writing on the back of the photos, but bad thing about it is
he never knows if he lies to himself. He lives in hotel, but every time he wakeup,
he doesn’t know where he is or how long has he been living there, it make him
check his room every time that he wakeup. He has a lot of tattoos on his body to
remind him something important, but the bad thing about it is hard to look at,
some tattoo need to look in to the mirror to understand it, sometime he actually
need to be nearly naked to see the tattoo, tattoos are not so good to check
quickly, that way he has got a note on his hand as well.
The film has a lot of low angle shot, which make the characters looks scary. A lot
of low-key lighting has been used as well, low-key lighting represent mystery
and darkness, contrast has been used a few time as well, because can make bad
thing look worse, such as blood and white floor. Shallow focusing has been used,
because it represents mystery.
Shelby’s room is very old and messy, which means a lot of things had been
happened and something haven’t been solve, his costume is always grey and
blue, grey means mystery, and blue means sad, so it shows that he is a mystery
guy who is sad about his dead wife.
When Shelby meet NATALIE (mystery woman) at the first time (on the movie
time line). She dressed in black with sunglasses and injury on her face, black
costume and sunglasses represent mystery, and injury represents violence,
which happen a lot in thriller film.
Shelby always gets outside with his gun, because he couldn’t trust anyone at all,
gun is a very basic in thriller film, it representing violence, it effect the feeling of
audiences to the gun a lot, even it haven’t been shoot out yet, but it can make the
audience scare of it, because of an experience.Pin board and alcohol also appear
a lot in thriller film, pin board with a lot of photo and text on it can shows that
something is still unsolved, and the character is solving something by using it,
and alcohol can make people drunk, so they can make a violence or they can lost
there memories, it is a thing that has been used quite often, because it is easy to
create some weird situation in the film by using alcohol as a medium.
The soundtrack of the movie had used a really low-pitched sound with a highpitched on the back of it, and the music is going slowly, so it made the soundtrack
sounds very scary. It also has a sound of dog barking, which maybe an everyday
life, if you have a pet, but Shelby might not remember it. Another sound that is in
the soundtrack is a sound of fire, it might be a sound of someone getting burn, or
his Polaroid photo is burning.