Memento Film Techniques

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"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." - George Bernard Shaw. Christopher Nolan's filming techniques progresses from his earlier films, namely Memento, to his more recent films, The Dark Knight, through having more elements of the Classic Hollywood Cinema technique of filming. This allowed the viewer to focus more on the main events as the other less important elements are "invisible" and does not attract the attention of the viewer. Memento, released in 2000, is a crime/drama film where Leonard Shelby can only remember fifteen minutes of the past and has to tattoo himself in order to remember so that he can avenge his wife's death. Memento received many awards, however he …show more content…

The Classic Hollywood Cinema filming techniques (CHC) are used to not attract the viewers attention to the non-essential elements (by making the lighting and music unobtrusive (placing it in the background) and the editing of the scenes does not alert the viewer). Christopher Nolan used a non-linear narrative structure in order to confuse the viewer as much as the main character is by using black and white and colour scenes which join together at the end of the film. The black and white scenes are shown in chronological order, however the color scenes are presented in reverse. The editing of the scenes draws the attention of the viewer because he is as confused as Leonard and does not fit into CHC. The two different plots used in the film also draws attention to itself because it is always switched between each other, as can be seen when the colour of the scenes changes from black and white to colour or vice versa. This also goes against CHC because the viewer is aware of the multiple plots, while CHC should not distract the viewer. The Dark Knight, released in 2008, is a crime/drama film where the elements of the Classic Hollywood Cinema is much more prominent than in Memento. Christopher Nolan's film style evolved from Memento to The

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