AY: Textual Analysis

Memento (C Nolan, 2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF6zEMDKdBw

Film Language

The mise-en-scene throughout this sequence is conventional to that of its genre. A contributing factor to this is the desolate locations making the character within it seem isolated. The fading images at the beginning of the film create enigmas for the audience as they appear to be shots from other events in the film. The clips within the title sequence are done in black and white which links to a film noir style of editing connoting further to the genre. These clips are also blurred slightly so that they audience cannot see clearly what is going on creating suspense and tension for the audience. When the man is seen properly, he looks fairly normal as he is dressed in a suit. In contrast to this, his suit is a murky brown colour indicating that he is different as it is not a conventional suit colour. When the main character has been established, there are short cliché shots of close ups of blood, a bullet, glasses surrounded by blood spatter and a man face down who has evidently been killed. These indicate to the audience that this man is potentially dangerous as he has just murdered someone. This again creates an enigma as the audience wants to find out who the man is and why he has been shot. Finally, when the man holds out his hand and the gun flies into it, it makes it seem as if he has supernatural powers again separating him from the normality of other humans.

 

Most of the camera shots used were close ups to show the emotion on the man’s face or show key pieces that add to the story such as the bullet on the ground. The man taking a picture is shot from a low angle positioning the audience from the victim’s point of view. This makes the audience slightly scared of the man but also, sympathise with him as he obviously has some form of mental illness. The shot of blood flowing up the screen creates disorientation and confusion as blood would be expected to flow down away from a wound.

 

The use of diegetic sound in the titles helps to anchor the action within it. The sound of a camera snapping makes it clear to the audience that it is supposed to be the sound of a picture being taken. The flapping of the picture is very repetitive, rapid and overemphasized which helps to set the pace of the scene. The soundtrack is very dense and moody giving off a tense atmosphere and further creating suspense. In contrast to this, as the film progresses, the soundtrack becomes higher pitched and echoes. This creates tension and also adds to the supernatural effect of the film as it sounds more ghostly. The dialogue in the background is slightly muffled and sounds more like someone’s thoughts in their head which is another reference to mental illness or instability.

 

The editing at the very beginning is very slow as it creates tension. Matched shots are used to establish different characters within the film for example, a picture of a woman would appear on the Polaroid paper, and then next to it would be a scene from the film of her speaking. This helps to establish the woman’s personality as she is portrayed as being very aggressive due to what she is shouting. The juxtaposition of these shots is also very conventional to the genre of the film. The shots of the main character are all taken in one shot to create continuity within the film by using pans and tilts. As the film progresses, the pace of the scene quickens as the action becomes more violent. This makes the audience more excited about what is happening and gives them less time to take in what is occurring.

 

Media Audiences

 

Due to the nature of the storyline and genre, this film would appeal most to the core audience of 15-24 year old males. This is because it is an action film but it also involves a ‘puzzle’ within the storyline. Having said this, it would also appeal to a secondary female audience due to the chosen actor to play the main character. The man, Guy Pearce is considered good looking by women and would therefore attract them to see the film. Having said this, it would also appeal to a general audience of an older age as it is a film that doesn’t contain too much violence and is relatively easy to follow.

 

 The most likely reading of this clip would be the negotiated reading. This is due to the audience perhaps empathising with the main character as he is obviously mentally unstable. This encourages the audience to sympathise with him which would contrast with the dominant hegemonic reading that he is evil because of his illness and murder is bad. Personally I would agree with the negotiated reading because I sympathise with the main character. He is obviously in need of help and although murder is wrong, he is not in a stable state to look after himself.

 

Institutional Context

 

The main character Guy Pearce was not very well known before this film was made. This meant that the film may not have appealed to such a wide audience as they were not sure if he was any good at acting. Having said this, the fact that a Hollywood movie star such as Brad Pitt wasn’t used meant that more time would’ve been spent focusing on the quality of the storyline and editing rather than what the actor was doing. However the director, Christopher Nolan, is very well known within the film industry as creating very high production value films.

 

The studio that produced Memento was an independent subsidiary company of Newmarket Capital Group called Newmarket Films. They have been involved in the production and distribution of many different films that are marketed towards niche audiences.

 

The main strategy of the marketing of Memento was the release of a trailer which involved showing short clips of the film which gave a rough outline of the storyline and created enigmas. The trailer was sold to cheap TV channels and online forums such as Yahoo and MSN as the use of digital technology meant that more people of a younger age would be able to see the trailer. As well as this, Jonathan Nolan utilised technological convergence (predominantly Web 2.0) by designing an official film website for the film. It was similar to the one created for The Blair Witch Project as it gave hints and clues towards the storyline but did not give any concrete information. As well as this, they sent out Polaroid pictures to random people with a bloody image of a shirtless man. Not only was this relevant to the main themes of the film, but it also portrayed the conventions of the genre and the mise-en-scene appealed to both men and women through the use of ‘gore’ and the topless man.

 

I think that the film has been made to look like a higher budget was used than it was through the use of realistic special effects and the precise editing of the film. I think that this reflects the values of the institute as the pre-production took seven weeks. This indicates that the planning of the film was very well thought out and clear as they did not have the time or money to waste on making mistakes and re-filming in post-production.