Memento - Christopher Nolan (2000)

What is introduced/told to the audience in the opening 2 minutes of the film;

• The main character is a man.
• The killing of a man takes place.
• No dialogue.
• Only non-diegetic music and synchronous sound is used.
• All of the action goes backwards but the sound goes forwards.
• Low-key, naturalistic lighting.
• It causes the audience to ask lots of questions.

What I thought of the film;

Memento uses two sets of alternating time-frames in the film. The earlier series of black and white sequences is in a motel, where Leonard's (the main character) condition is explained. The second series of color sequences, played in reverse order, is where we see his investigation and learn what leads Leonard to kill the man in the opening credits.
I like the way the story is told backwards and a little bit more action is added on each time. I think this causes the audience to understand the main character's condition better as you get a sense of what it is like. By telling the story of Leonard's condition forwards, this helps the audience as the condition is told to them straight so that they don't have piece it together, leaving them to concentrate on piecing together Leonard's investigation.
The film causes the audience to think the whole way through and the only time they get a break is during the black and white explanation scenes. This causes the film to be quite challenging to watch.
The narrative that runs in chronological order is clearly distinguished from the narrative that runs in reverse order. This helps out the audience and adds a different dimension to the film.
If this film was shown completely in chronological order, I don't think it would be a very good film at all as I don't think that narrative is strong enough on it's own. What makes this film good is the way the narrative is told to the audience, allowing them to piece it together.

Memento hasn't really inspired any of the choices I've made for my film. I think this is probably because, personally, I didn't like the film, I only liked the way it was presented to the audience as I thought this was a very interesting way to do a film. Having said this, I wouldn't choose to do my film like this as I think it would be very hard to do and you couldn't really do something like this in the opening 2 minutes of a film. Also, this doesn't fit with the way I want to show the action in my film.
On the other hand, like Memento, my film is going to be a psychological thriller. Memento uses some flashbacks to show Leonard's life before the accident and also flashbacks to show the accident. Similarly, I am going to use flashbacks to show the audience the accident that happens in my film. This is the only way in which my film will have any similarities to Memento.