How does Nolan convey Memento as a psychological thriller?
Nolan conveys ‘Memento’ as a psychological thriller in a number of ways, he uses conventions of a psychological thriller, sound, editing techniques, camera angles, and the representation of the characters.
The narrative of the film is not conventional compared to other films; it has been made so that it is in a non linear order. The film starts from the end and as it moves through the film works towards the beginning, revealing information that the viewer did not know in each scene, showing why the previous scene has taken place. The way the scenes flick back may symbolise the characters compulsive nature and shows the frustration that he is feeling. The way that the film has been made may also symbolise the characters memory, how it is not easily put together, how things are forgotten and then remembered. The film confuses the audience’s expectations and challenges the viewer’s way of thinking. The way the film is set out grips the audience and creates tension which is conventional in a psychological thriller, as the viewers have to watch and want to know why these events are taking place and what started it all. The way that the film slowly in chunks reveals the story of Sammie and the story of how Lennie’s wife died, also creates tension and makes the audience have to watch on as you don’t find out the whole story until the end of the film. The character Teddy in this film is the anti-hero, the audience does not find out whether he is good or bad, or both. They can’t tell if he is on Lennie’s side as so this creates drama and a compelling story line for this character, as he confuses the audience and gets them thinking, this conveys the idea of Memento being a psychological thriller. Another character that does this is Lenny himself, the audience sees him as a dark and complex character that can be quite violent and so we draw an opinion that he is not the nicest of people, but then at the same time the viewers feel sorry for him because of what has happened to him, with his memory, and his wife.
Before the film begins we see the opening credits, which are accompanied by the same style of sombre and reflective music as it heard in the first scene. We also see the opening title to introduce the film and state what the film actually is. The font used is blue on black and is bold and spread out, this font saying memento’ may symbolise the memory of the character. The font colours, blue on black do not stand out as much as using white on black would, which would be the colours used for other films. This may show how is memory fades and is eventually nothing and the was that it is spaced out and bold may show how some of his memories are clearer than others but at the same time are not placed together in his mind how they should be, and so not much sense can be made of them, like the memories of Sammie Jenkins and his wife’s death.
In the first scene the mise-en-scene is dark and sombre, this creates a sense of mystery and is a key convention in a psychological thriller, as it must confuse the audience and keep them guessing and gripped to the movie.
The non-diegetic music in the first scene is sombre and reflective. It also sounds quite sad which is quite ironic, as this scene is quite a sad and sombre scene, and is as well quite reflective as Lennie is thinking back to the events that have recently happened, but that he can’t remember. The music is almost a drone, which may reflect the scene being edited to reflect slow motion, so that the seriousness of the scene is put across to the audience.
At the beginning of the film, the audience watch a photo being shaken and fade to black, this image is blurred and distorted which confuses and grips the viewer as they want to know what the picture is, and also why it is fading to black rather than becoming clearer, as until we begin to see more of the scene is isn’t let onto the audience that the scene is being shown backwards. The shot of the photo is a close up and also a point of view shot, which gives a sense of mystery as the viewer can’t see anything else in the scene just the photo and this isn’t even clear, by creating this sense of mystery and using point of view shots it conveys memento as a psychological thriller, as it puts the viewer artificially into the situation. As the scene begins to unfold, we see that someone has been shot; the blood that has been used is a special effect to create a sense of tension and drama that show conventions of the psychological thriller. The way that the scene rewinds gives the viewer the impression that they are going to see why the shooting has taken place, from the beginning of the story to what they are watching now. Nolan therefore confuses the viewer by not showing this and instead having a direct cut straight to a completely separate scene. Dissolves are used as transitions between cuts to symbolise his memory dissolving/being forgotten.
Just before the scene cuts to the next he see the gun flying back into his hand and then the trigger being pulled and the gunshot sounding, this shot gives a sense of power to the gun instead of the Lennie as it is the gun going to his hand, rather than him gripping the gun, it makes the gun seem real and much more powerful, like it has control of the situation. The gun shot sound is much louder than all of the background music and gives a sense of the seriousness and anger of the situation.
The next shot is a black and white shot of Lennie sitting in a room. As he begins to speak his voice is almost a drone, which gives the impression that he is thinking out loud to himself, trying to work out where he is and what’s happened. By having this scene in black and white it takes away from the main movie, and so we can see that the black and white scenes symbolise/show his memory. The black and white scenes show him recalling memories and show him working things out, for example in this scene, he is working out, trying to understand what room he is in, and is trying to decide whether or not it is where he lives. Using black and white editing conveys the idea that this is a psychological thriller as using this creates a sense of darkness, and gives the viewer a sense that something is not right.
The representations of the characters are not very stereotypical representations. Lennie is not very stereotypical of a mentally disabled person. He is very independent and driven rather than relying on anyone else. He has his own system for dealing with his condition, also Teddy is not shown as a stereotypical killer, he is friendly and appears to be helping Lennie, rather than going against him, although there are some things that hint to him trying to stop Lennie finding out information, for example he give Lennie people to kill, and he is said in the film to be lying a lot, which gives the impression that Teddy is not as nice as guy as first thought. He is also said to be a cop who is not stereotypical of a killer either. But in the way that he seems quite twisted, shows the viewer that he could be a killer. This will convey memento as a psychological thriller as it confuses and concerns the audience.
The first shot of the film is usually an establishing shot or a blank screen with titles. These title screens can also be a way of building up suspense before the film and giving away the genre of the film to the audience before the film actually starts.
