Analysis of the opening scene of "Mememto"

I think that this is a fantastic opening sequence. it establishes most of the main themes of the film, with no dialogue, which is what i am trying to achieve with my own thriller project. It manages to set up the theme of going backwards in time with an enigmatic shot of a polariod photo developing, but in reverse. The fact that there is over a minute before anything even happens is effective, as it gives the audience long enough to consider why there is a polariod photo of a dead person (even the fact we don't know gender or age adds to the enigma) who has obviously been killed violently. It also is effective, as it gives enough time for a fair amount of opening credits.

The reversal effect adds even more enigma, where the character is shaking a polariod, but instead of the photo becoming more clear, it makes the photo less developed, which an audience wouldn't expect. It takes another 30 seconds for the photo to "undevelop". This is a very long shot, which gives the audience even more time to think, and take in the fact that time is reversing.

The time reversing theme only becomes totally apparent when the main character puts the photo into the polariod camera, then takes the photo, and we are given for the first time a shot of the protagonist's face. he has scars on his face, and looks slightly shaken, indicating that there may have been a struggle, and that he is probably either the murderer, or the discoverer of the body, the latter being more probable since he is taking a photo of the body.

He then puts the camera away, which is actually taking it out in real time, and looks at the body. There is then a shot of the blood dripping up, which anchors the fact that the body was only just recently killed, which shows that this man probably did, infact, do the killing.

there are then 3 very strong images of an empty bullet shell, a pair of glasses on the floor, and then the body, face down on the floor. It is only here that we can get a better look at the victim, and can tell that he is a 40-45 year old male, as he has a short haircut which has a few grey hairs in it. This adds even more enigma as it makes the audience wonder why he was killed in the first place.

The next shot reveals that he was definately shot by the main character, as the gun flies up into his hand, as if he had thrown it down. The bullet then leaps back into the gun, and the glasses start twitching, and The body "comes to life" and we get shown the killing of the victim.

The use of enigma codes is very important in the film, especially finding what happened before, and it sets up the importantness of seeing things in reverse order.