1. Chronological (linear)
for example, Classical Hollywood Cinema
Time is understood to be linear and by the end our hero has acquired knowledge
- Introduced to protagonist
- Conflict presented
- Protagonist must defeat conflict
- Resolution
BASICALLY plot and story, cause and effect, time, space, opening, closing, and patterns of development
- A narrative that tells a single story in chronological sequence from beginning to end. Cf. Maltese Falcon; Chinatown.
- A narrative with multiple story lines. The narrative is structured by using some form of crosscutting or parallel montage to tell "simultaneous" stories. Cf. Birth of a Nation; Seventh Seal; Touch of Evil; The Godfather; Short Cuts; Fargo.
Italian Neo-realism, The New Wave, and the New German Cinema.
2. Non-chronological (non-linear)
SIMULTANIOUSLY FORWARDS and BACKWARDS!!! MOMENTO
different phases of the same tale are intercut. But now a forward-moving module is accompanied by one moving backward. Again, these are kept distinct through time markers (color footage vs. black-and-white), and the reverse-chronology one is filled with tokens and echoes that remind us that what we’ve already seen actually took place after what we’re seeing now.
DREAM IN A DREAM IN A DREAM (time collapses)
LOOP
- installation
Options for structuring non-linear narrative.
- Intertitles to indicate time-shifts. Cf. The Hours; Adaptation.
- The context indicates time-shifts indirectly through dialogue, description of setting and reporting of action. A sequence that is so different from what precedes or follows it that it indicates time shift. Cf. Raging Bull.
- A sudden cut or dramatic transition between sequences will indicate time-shifts. Examples:
- Asa Nisi Masa (yt).
- In Pulp Fiction, the story of Butch's Gold Watch turns out to be a memory dream while Butch is on the training table waiting for his fight.
- Charley Kaufman's dreams and fantasies in Adaptation.
- A Third-Person Voice-over Narrator indicates time-shifts between the present, past and future. Examples:
- The Killing.
- VO's in Barry Lyndon.
- First-Person Narrators who tell their memories or visions of the future by words and transitions to images and sound that simulate their telling. Examples:
- Double Indemnity (yt).
- Rashomon.
- The Usual Suspects.
- Unclear time-shifts. By not using any of the basic options the narrative intends to confuse and mislead about time in order to disorient the audience. Examples:
- Last Year at Marienbad.
- Pulp Fiction.
- Lost Highway.
- Memento.
- Mulholland Drive.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
