Analysis of the Opening to Memento

The film open with a very long close up of a polaroid photo, containing a bloody scene, immediately linking this film to the horror and thriller genre. The music backing it remains constant thought the long shot, classical and almost mournful. The soundtrack is slightly contrapuntal as it juxtaposes the horrific scene in the photograph. The titles appear over the single long shot of the photo in bold, blue text, standing out very distinctly against the blood red.  The cold blue colour paired with the formal looking font off the text, hint at the ominous nature of what has happened. The audience then start to realise that the shot has been played in reverse as the bloody scene begins to fade away slowly, leaving a white polaroid, as if nothing was ever there in the first place. The shot then changes for the first time and we see a close up of the photo being taken, the shot then pans up, revealing the photographers face. The music diminuendos and becomes erie as we here the loud diegetic sound of the photo being taken. The camera then hovers on a close up of his face, building the audience's emotional connection with him. We immediately see that is is splattered with blood and scared, linking him with the likely murder that has taken place. There is then a series of high speed editing close up shots, establishing the horrific state of the room. The evident increase of pace here begins to rapidly build the tension and hints that what has happened is about to be revealed. We then see a close up of a bullet, conveying that it was a murder. The audience is then shown a mid shot of the dead body, right before we see the murder take place in reverse. We briefly see the victim's face though not for long enough to identify him, also we hear a shout conveying that there was some kind of struggle