How Does Christopher Nolan Use Film Language To Establish Narrative, Genre & Audience Engagement In The Opening Scenes Of "Memento" [2000]

In the opening scenes of memento there is a lot of use of tilted camera angles, creating an uneasy tension building feeling within the audience, making them think about what's really going on, the angles are quite disorientating.
The camera pans around the polaroid picture, showing the great importance of what the polaroid pictures have throughout the rest of the film.
The low-angle shot of the murderer gives the impression that he is the one in control of the situation, and has the control over someones life.
The vast amount of close-ups used is extremely clever, it creates tension and curiosity within the audience as it's not letting you have the whole picture, so you have a vague idea of whats going on. The camera work is like peicing a puzzle together, because we gradually get the idea of what the importance of the close-ups are.

Underlighting and shadows are used to conceal and hide who the main character really is.
Leonard appears to be smartly dressed but his face is scratched as if hes been in a fight, which leaves the audience wondering whats happened. There is a tattoo on leonards hand and a wedding finger which has a great importance later on in the film.

The sound starts off very queitly, building up and swelling louder as the titles appear creating a very subtle eery mood to the opening of the film. The voiceover is quite uneasy and confused making the audience feel uneasy themselves.
The ticking of the clock shows there is a deadline against time, which is a key convention classically used in the thriller genre.
The gun shot, shaking of the photograph and the bullet rolling across the floor is quite shocking, and goes well with whats going on.

The editing in this film is rather clever, the use of black & white and colour to show whats in the past and whats actually happening and the fact the film is reverse. The blue film titles give an impression of something serious. The fast pace backwards leads to a sense of confusion and dissorientation.
The fast short images help establish the characters.