Visual Essay Memento

1. Memento: Visual Essay

2. Memento:
• Is a psycho-thriller
• Directed by: Christopher Nolan
• Won lot of prizes e.g. AFI-Award, MTV
Music Award
• Main Character: Leonard (Guy Pierce)
• Main topics: Memories, death, revenge

3. Sound
• In this point the music gets over a maximum and ebb away
• Music gets my attention in this point because it is
unexpected
• Maybe you should have attention to the screen because
something important will happen
• Music is non-diagetic
• subliminal

4. Cinematography
• Very impressive scene when the blood flows the walls UP instead of
down what would be normal
• The Blood stands for violence
• Really realistic

5. Cinematography
• Extrem Close up
• It gives you an idea what is the sense of the
introducing scene
• Nolan wants to give the audience a sense what will
happen in the film
• It also has the effect that you have a heebie-jeebie

6. Editing
• Extreme Close up on the picture
• Picture develops back; really realistic
• Contrast to the writing in the foreground

7. Editing
• Close up to picture what goes back in the camera
• Beacause it goes backward it is another evidence
how the film will work
• It looks like summer but one of the colder days
(don’t know whether this is important)

8. Setting
• The scene take place in an old storehouse I
think or in a given up company
• No one may see this of course it is a murder
but I think this is an act of revenge
• Medium shot to Leo

9. Character
• Main Character: Leonard Shelby
• He looks traumatised and a bit sad but also
• Pleased
• Psychologically disordered (like always in
Christopher Nolan’s films is one mentally
disordered)

10. Narrative
• You see at first this photo of a dead body in front of a
tiled now bloody wall
• Then someone makes a photo and you see the main
character Leo
• He shoots the man who actually were the dead body

11. Titles
• Titles are written in clear big blue letters in the centre
of the screen
• It is really obvious that you should see at the title
• You don’t know what is expecting you
• It is not really inspireing

12. Conclusion
• Memento’s opening sequence fullfills the
Thriller-Cliché
• It arouses pressure
• You get introduced to the Main character
• The sound is very suitable
• It is darker than outside
• The audience’ attention is sure now