Insomnia and Memento

• In one of our lessons, we watched the opening of two films, Insomnia and Memento.

The opening title credits of 'Insomnia' was a basic opening as it was a a blurred vision slowly focusing into white as the title of "Insomnia" fade in and then fades out. The white background then faded into a very interesting view of an extreme close up on fabric fibres as blood seeps into them, giving it a dark red and damp colour to it. There are lots of different clips of this blood seeping into the fabric fibres. The music contained strings crescendo as a feel of suspense and tension grips the audience. The fibres then fade into another piece fabric, but a white sleeve with blood on it. The camera zooms out to see a man trying to wipe the blood off his sleeve. Once again there is another fade, but this time into a plane flying over the icy mountains of Alaska.

The opening title credits of 'Momento' The background is black while the credits slowly come into focus. Then the title "Memento" slowly fades in blue. we then see someone's hand holding a polaroid picture. But this picture has already been processed. the camera moves back as we see a man holding this picture. Ths man starts to shak the photo and as he does, it seems to get weaker. there is a hint of a tatoo on the man's hand which obviously means somehing will be related to that during the movie. The picture on the camera slowly gets weaker and weaker unitl thee is nothing left on the picture frame. He then puts the picture into the camera. As this happens we can see that everything is actually happening backwards. We see blood on the wall running backwards, the shell of the bullet come off the floor, glasses coming off the floor and onto the shot man's face, the man with his photo having the gun go back into his hand. We hear this as the sound flows backwards and then a shout as victim is about to be shot.

I personally prefered the 'Memento' opening more than the 'Insomnia' opening as I feel that the use of reverse was used very well and was very different. The blood seeping into the fabric fibres was a good effect but I feel that it went on for too long. I loved the idea of a ploaroid picture going from stronger to weaker as i feel it could be a metaphorical meaning for the rest of the movie. Cheers. x