File scene analysis of Memento_3253


Memento is a 2000 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The plot of the film can be unfolded in two separate, alternating narratives — one in color, and the other in black and white. The black and white sections are told in chronological order, showing Leonard conversing with an anonymous phone caller in a motel room. Leonard's investigation is depicted in color sequences that are in reverse chronological order. As each sequence begins, the audiences are unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard, thereby giving the viewer a sense of his confusion. By the film's end when the two narratives converge we understand the investigation and the events that can lead up to Teddy's death.

The black and white timeline is depicted a beginning section of the story which telling us some important details of understanding the whole movie. It includes Leonard’s expressions and actions such as making tattoos on his body and telling the background of story and himself with an anonymous phone caller and so on. The scene that I choose is in this black and white timeline. Although this scene is depicted on two different times, the scene is showed in chronological order actually because of a special narrating way with two interlaced timelines. Therefore I understand it as an independence scene and the time it lasts is 1 minute.

Cutting to A gauze opened by Leonard guides to an extreme close-up shot that the film tells us an important information by a tattoo made by Leonard on his thigh, which said, “fact 5, drug dealer”. The shot only lasts 2 second. It reflects one feature of this movie that important information always shows in details. In fact, the word “drug dealer” is an important clue in this story. After this shot, camera is back to show Leonard’s head and he have stopped speaking but the phone is keeping holding on and there is a little taut on his face. It is a followed by a close-up of Leonard uses his left index finger to itch around his right hand where another gauze put on to. On the play order of the movie, it is a color timeline depicted followed it. However, i will continue to discuss the next shot which is black and white after Leonard is itching around his right hand.

After a color depicting, there an extreme close-up shot that Leonard starts talking again and begins to open the gauze on his right hand. He does not open it immediately and shake the gauze. I think the shot here is to the point because Leonard doesn’t know who he is talking to and he feels good while talking. We know that if he knows what is under the gauze, he could not be so peaceful like that. In my opinion, this is one of the example that why Nolan decide to narrate the story using two timeline and arranged it staggered. It can make enough suspense and push viewers to keep high curious to know what will happen “before”.

The following shots repeatedly present Leonard is still talking and opening the gauze. There are 4 close-up shots between these two narrating. The following shots show Leonard finally opens the gauze. Cutting to a shot that he is keeping talking something but he suddenly notices what is written on his right hand, and he is shocked. The camera suddenly cut until Leonard stops talking, guiding the next shot to show viewer the contents on his tattoo: “never answer the phone”.

The following close-up shot depicted that Leonard takes the receiver away from his ear as if the caller has just hung up and then cut to a medium shot showing he is sitting on a bed and looking up and around feeling nervous. The shots before this all are close-up or extreme close-up. However, the shots style does not change until Leonard gets some problems and then feels nervous, which can be prominent the risk is coming around the small room or out of it. Then the shot fades to color timeline to continue the story.

Coming back to black and white time line, the shot goes on. The first shot this time is a close-up about the tattoo which is “never answer the phone” so that we can come back to this timeline again and review what happened before. The shots after this are extremely different from them before the character begins to feel anxiety. Specifically, it reflects in the rhythm of shots changing and we can notice it begin to have some quick camera movement. Let see them. First one after a shot having words of tattoo is a close-up shot. It depicts that he is sitting on his bed with the camera movement from down to up. The shot suddenly moves to the telephone next to him while the phone starts to ring again. Leonard picks up and hung down the caller immediately with a fast movement of going up and quickly changing to go down. The shots guide another two shot depicted a very nervous Leonard, those are, he is walking around the bed and watching the phone, and standing back to the bed, supporting his body with two hands.

In conclusion, the scene I choose is in the black and white timeline and it can show huge differences about Leonard between before he finds his tattoo and after. What’s more, there are many details showed here for us to understand this movie better.