Momento: Blog Post

            “Momento” has very straightforward camera shots.  What I mean by this is that since there is one really main character, the camera is mostly focused all on him whether that be close ups, medium shot, or full body shots.  One very specific moment is when Lenny is looking for a pen in Natalie’s house so he doesn’t forget that he just beat her up, and that she is going to use him.  The director uses mostly close ups on Lenny when he is searching for a pen to show the urgency in his face.  Another time camera shots are prominent in the movie is there are quick concise flashbacks to when his wife was raped and supposedly murdered.  During the movie it is a very dark quiet scene and then out of nowhere the screen cuts to a clip less than a second long of a mouth being suffocated by a shower curtain, and then again.  I think the director does this to catch you off guard and wondering who that is, what’s happening, and intrigues you for the upcoming scene.  One point in the movie where I feel the camera work was not very good was the black and white scene where Leonard is in his room on the phone.  The camera is shooting a low to high shot which normally represents power, superior, noble, heroic, etc., but here Lenny is frantic and is trying to figure out the situation and is the complete opposite predicament.  The theme of, you can never really trust anyone is emphasized by the camera shots in the movie.  Since the majority of the camera time is spent solely on Lenny, it proves how you should just believe and trust yourself.  Although I’m not sure that the director should use the angles and shots in this way because if I were Leonard I would not believe and trust myself because of his condition.  This movie with its keen camera shot and angles can be compared to “Apollo 13” for the camera shots and angles.  In “Apollo 13” when the spaceship is on fire the camera shoots close up shots of all the astronauts to emphasize their emotions, for they know where their destiny lies.