analysis

Assignment 2 The film “Momento”, was a really interesting film. Nolan used disjunctive editing to tell his story. The black and white scenes played the story chronological order, while the color scenes told the story from the end to the beginning. Throughout the film Nolan used different techniques to affect my viewing experience. The way he positioned the camera was really important in the film. The scenes where Leonard is in the hotel are mostly close up shots of him reading or writing down the information he needed. The close up shots of Leonard showed how he struggled with short-term memory loss. The way the camera didn’t stay for long on these particular shots showed how Leonard had to move fast to try and piece things together and make notes so that the next day he can keep adding to the story and eventually be able to add enough to find out what happened. The scenes happen so quickly and move through the different parts of the day that have significance for Leonard. You get the feeling in the film that he must move very fast or else he would forget. The lighting in the film sets the mood in the film as depressing and sadness. It is depressing because in the start of the film, the scene where Leonard is in the hotel room; the camera looks around the hotel room and shows the emptiness in the room. Nolan shows us this by filming the empty closet where only hangers hang and also by showing us the little stuff there is on the dressers. The mood is not only depressing because of the emptiness in the room but also the way that the scene is in black and white. Throughout the film the scenes that are in black in white show sadness and a feeling of emptiness. The sound also influences the mood of the film. An example of this would be the depressing music in the background in the scenes where Leonard reads his tattoos and notes he has. The music played throughout the film is slow and sad.