Nine Frame Analysis – Momento.

The begning of the sequence begins with

someone holding up a photo and the film

name in front of it. The photo resembles

something to do with mystery and crime, and

the fact that you cant see who is holding it

makes you wonder what type of person they

are and why are they holding a photo of a

crime scene. The fact that you cant see

anything in the background but darkness also

makes your mind wonder.

The dark shades of a red liquid

resembles blood, the close up of it

slowly dripping down the wall makes

your mind focus on it more and

realise that there must have been a

murder committed. This resembles

film noir films as it resembles a gun

shooting and a tragic outcome to

the scenario.

This is the only time in the opening

sequence where you see the face of the

man who was holding the photo. The

shadow against his face hides something

that he has done. The extreme close up to

his face shows you his reaction to whatever

has happened. With the light reflecting off

the side of his face with blood on his cheek

gives he idea that he may have been

involved in a crime such as a murder which

makes you wonder who, what, how and

why the crime happened.

The deep red colours are

continued in the next shot, a

medium close up of a pair of

glasses broken on the floor, the

blood running down the wall and

only a small glimpse of sunlight

within the darkness puts horror in

your eyes and makes it seem like

a tragic ending like you get in film

noir films. As you still cant tell the

setting you still wonder why the

crime was committed and who

committed it.

As the next credit is shown, the man

shakes the photo again, this time it

has gone a dark orange colour and

some of the details in the picture are

starting to fade away. This makes you

think that something is trying to be

covered and hidden from someone,

like a vital piece of evidence to

something. This represents film noir

films as evidence in crime scenes are

vital.

After you are given ideas on the film genre

and what the film is going to contain, the

credits start to come into the scene. The

image relates back to the same image at

the opening of a man holding a photo, the

photo has lost its variety of colours when the

man shook the image. It turns into dark

red/brown colours on the images.

At this point in the opening sequence

you can then realise that the scene is

rewinding itself as the gun then re-

enters the mans hand .the

background is still extremely dark and

gloomy with only sunlight gleaming

through a window. This continues to

show mystery to the scene and gives

one reason for why the murder was

done – because it was dark and

nobody could see.

As the photo is shook again, the

credits change and the photo is

now a lot lighter yellow colour

which just looks like blotches of

yellow on the picture with no story

towards it. It is at this point you start

to think that the scene is rewinding

so the audience can see the story

from the beginning and how the

crime was committed and why. This

is like a film noir film as evidence is

small at the beginning, however

once you get into the scenario

things build up.

The final part to the opening shows a

high angle of the glasses being sent to

the the victims face again. The scene

continues to stay dark with only natural

sunlight reflecting on the wall and blood

stains just barely noticeable. You can

then tell that there is only two main

characters in this scene. This can refer

back to film noir films as the main

characters are usually two people who

meet up privately, just like the two men

here who are in a dark, private place

where things don’t run so smoothly.

Overall, the stills in this opening clip of Momento are mainly taken at extreme close-ups, this

hides the identity of the characters and makes you focus on the main item in each frame.

Altogether these items then sum up the genre of the film and gives you a brief summary of

what will happen in the film.