Scene analysis

Momento

Duration: 1:37:47-1:38:47

Mise-en-scene:

l Setting:
in this scene the abandoned building where Leonard kills both Jimmy and Teddy is the background .

l Colors:
black white and color is the dominate color in this scene .But When Lenny recalling his wife we can see there is a color scene appeared which reveal the life when lenny live with his wife was colorful for him. The black white is one of timeline in this movie which tell the story from begin to end.

l

Sound:
at beginning , there is no background music, just the dialogue between Lenny and Jimmy. when the fighting began , we can hear some background music in really low volume which companied with effect sound .

l Dialogue:
the dialogue began with a few questions that Lenny making sure the man is Jimmy who he should kill for his wife. Through the dialogue we can find the relationship between Jimmy ,Lenny and Tedyy. Teddy made an appointment with Jimmy and used lenny who has problem about remembering things to kill Jimmy.

l Contrasting areas:
We can find contrasting areas everywhere in this scene. Because there is just 2 colors in it basically . the foreground , white , is much more visible than the background, black . there are some areas that are really bright when the dominate color compared eachother.

l Lighting:
this is a interior scene where appears to use artificial light . we can sense the high contrast between colors everywhere in this scene which make the expression really readable . And the shadow is very obviously as well .

Character Analysis

l Characters
In this scene , the protagonist is named Leonard. We learn much about his past which complete by his flashbacks . And the antagonist is Natalie's boyfriend,Jimmy Grantz, whom Leonard kills.

l Characters Relationships:
Jimmy is the people who leonard thought is one of the robbers . They ended up with leonard killed Jimmy for the revenge of his wife .

l Characters Movement:

Actually this is a fighting scene. Characters moving all the time .Jimmy entered into the frame from off-screen first and Leonard showed up .After few questions , Leonard gave Jimmy a suddenly strike on the head which made him fell down to the ground . At last , Leonard killed Jimmy by taking his throat.

Editing

l Time:
In this scene , each shot takes roughly 3 -5 seconds .

l Editing Style:

Speaking of editing style .i think short sequences and longer sequences are both used in this scene . Director used short sequences in fighting part to nest some furious atmosphere . It makes the feeling like: wow this man has totally freaked out . all he wants Is revenge .And after fighting part , editing style turned into longer sequence to make scene more understandable for audience , because characters were having some dialogue .

l Transitions:

The most frequent transition in this scene is jump-cut, namely shots goes immediately to the next shot without transition . As mentioned before , the most acceptable reason why jump- cuts used here is this is a fighting scene.

Cinematography

l Shot types:
A wide range of shot type have been used in this scene (close up, medium shot and long shot ) . When they are talking, it shows close up or medium shot. Because we can just see half body of characters and the camera was focused on characters face . we can sense their feeling by a nice close up . On the opposite , When Lenny hit Jimmy, the camera became long shot. So audience can have a clear view to understand whats going on here .

l Camera Angle:
Over the shoulder was used when characters talking and low angle was the one director choose to show violence happing .That is really great choice . Audience can sense the fight is really close to them rather than oh this is just movie ,we are sitting in front of screen .

l Camera Movement:
pan left and tracking shot used in most of case in this scene. Those two camera movement make the battle became more fierce .

Deconstructed meaning:

Lenny thought Jimmy is the robber. but the question is his memory true? lenny tends to shift quickly and easily between the roles of "note-taker" and "note-follower". he is less able to keep focus on the things at hand and remember what he is doing . if we put ourself in lanny 's shoes .we will understand something is better to unknow .