Analysis
Memento
Director: christopher Nolan
Genre: Crime Drama Mystery Thriller
Synopsis: A man got one condition that can’t make any new memory, but he want to get revenge for his wife, he can only get memory from photos tattoo, and notes he write for himself, how to find and kill the right person under this condition, you’ll see in this movie.

Duration: Time: 2.50-----3.50
Mise-en-scene: Lenny and Teddy both show up during this period, and Teddy was dead at the beginning, the situation is Lenny hold a gun to shoot Teddy in a dark room.

Colors: At the beginning is color, after playing back the scene Lenny killed Teddy, change to black and white. Color one start first, during that time, we can see definitely something happened between Lenny and Teddy, and we would curious why he killed Teddy, then color change to black white. Lenny start to talk about himself, then we start getting some information to understand the plot.

Sound: For the color one at the beginning, silence first, then we can hear some mystery music, but just for a very short time, then change to the black and white one, we can hear the monologue of Lenny.

Dialogue: for the color one at first, no any dialogue, but for the black and white part, there was some monologue from Lenny. Then when the color change back to the color, some dialogue between the reception man, and then Lenny shows up, he start talking with Lenny.

Edit: playback, jump cut and the fade transition for changing black and white to color, and almost all the cut used jump cut, and the playback make audience feel intersting and curious about the movie.

Camera: close up, on shoulder, extreme close up, and use the low camera angle, the extream close up for the bullet, gun ,and glasses with blood, just few simple stuff show that someone dead by shot. And the high camera angle for shooting Lenny was lying on the bed of the motel.

Analysis of this peirod: This is the beginning of the movie, so the director are supposed to make audience understand some basic things, first, the color one, Teddy was dead at the beginning, but some playback tell that this is the end or, not happened yet, and then jump cut to the black and white, through the monologue, we can tell Lenny didn’t know what’s going on at all, he was totally lost, and he didn’t know how long he had been stayed at the motel, then the color changed back, Lenny was talking to the reception man, and according to the dialogue, we can see Lenny got some kind of condition, through the picture of Teddy and note on the picture, that can tell Teddy and Lenny are not very familiar or Teddy got some memory problem. And then, Lenny didn’t know if he had told Teddy about his condition or not, that’s more like memory problem. All this setting pave the way for the plot of this movie. Through this one minute, maybe we’re still confused, but all the suspense left to the audience makes people want to know what would happen next. And we can see Lenny killed Teddy at the beginning, obviously, there was something wrong between them, but when Lenny walked out from the motel, they are together and it seems like they are friends, though Lenny didn’t remember Teddy at all, he showed the photo of Teddy to the reception man, and then Teddy shows up, but when Lenny saw him, he was a little bit confused, we would wonder why Lenny got one photo of Teddy, but he can’t remember him at all. And what would happen that lead lenny kill teddy. Tow main character shows up in this one minutes, and the director explained the conflict would happen between these tow man , and at the end , one die, the audience would starting wondering the plot, and become interested in the film, especially for the ending, people would ask what kind of movie it is, and what condition Lenny got, and this condition brings what ending to Lenny, a lot of questions set up in this one minutes, so it’s a good beginning for got audience attention, the proportion between question and answers was in a good balance, the audience got some information and also more questions. So as I mentioned before, we can tell christopher Nolan is pretty good at set the plot for audience, a man lost his memory and with a lot of questions on him and he is even confusing about himself, but his purpose is get revenge for his wife, how ridiculous it is, and through his tattoo we can realise that he definetly got something to do and he can’t forget it, that’s why he put these thing on his body, No doubt about it, he is a question, and through the conversation between Lenny and the reception man, we can tell though Lenny can’t remember what happened, he knows what kind of condition he is in. And while he was showing the picture of Teddy, teddy showed up, then we can’t help thinking why he killed the Teddy at the first scene, cause at that time, they were just like friends, and we would also start thinking what kind of person Teddy is, is he the murder? Or Lenny killed the wrong person, the director make those tow main charactors show up in this one minute, but just in one minute, he introduce how mysterious lenny is, and make us think whether Teddy is good or bad person, why at the beginning, he was killed by lenny, this is a big suspense for audience, and the more intersting part is how a man who is under this condition can find the murder and got revenge for his wife, cause he even can’t remember anything and anyone new. The excellent part for the beginning part is the director introduce the charactors and set up a lot of questions at the same time. And anothing is the director divide the movie into two part, one is black and white, another is color. Maybe it would confuse us at the beginning, but after you watching the whole movie, you will find this is one clever part for this movie, the black and white part tell the story clockwisely, and the color one goes anti-clockwise, then you can easily find which scene fit which one.