Inventive Narrative Structures

I’m developing a proposal for a college course on narrative structures in film. I’m interested in compiling a list of films that break out of the traditional 3-act structure and experiment with pacing, chronology, and just storytelling methodology in general. So of course there’s MEMENTO and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK. And PULP FICTION. I’m hoping to create a list that spans all eras of film. Suggestions?

Well first of all, this list would be a laughing stock without “Last Year At Marienbad” and “Hiroshima Mon Amour”

Irreversible- although it has a linear trajectory, the much-maligned-as-a-gimmick reverse narrative functions to displace the story, focussing it on a tapestry of details, which accumulate to complete a incredibly deep picture of love, rage and emptiness.

haha, knew you were gonna say that T, agreed though.

I just watched Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and he’s definitely playing with structure. It doesn’t fully break out of the 3-act structure, but it juxtoposes the end of Mishima’s life, his early years, and narratives from Mishima’s stories four times over.

Of course, any surrealist film would probably fit, too. Jodorowsky comes to mind, but Bunuel most of all – esp. Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

The Color of Pomegranates, Almost every David Lynch movie. Two Or Three Things I Know About Her.

I also liked the stuff in The Departed where there is a main scene, cut with things that happened, things that are also simultaneously happening and stuff that hasn’t happened yet. Pretty cool stuff.

Ah David Lynch owes it all to Maya Deren, but the bastard won’t admit it. Like Deren, his work looks and feels like narrative, but its really all about the impact of the camera on the nervous system. Or thereabouts.
Probably.

A decent film that plays with the structure is Jacob’s Ladder. Like i said a decent film by adrian lynne.

I would also suggest Bergman’s “Persona” and the Japanese “The Mystery of Rampo,” by Kazuyoshi Okuyama. And then there’s Dreyer’s silent “Vampyr,” although I’m not so sure that it really comes within your definitions."

I mentioned it over in the “underrated Kubrick films” thread, but Full Metal Jacket has one of the most covertly experimental and innovative narrative structures in mainstream film history.

T- You’re essentially correct, but I think Lynch is more interested in actually telling a story than Deren was, his movies invoke stories that actually make a lot of literal sense when they’re reconstructed. Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Fire Walk With Me etc…….Inland Empire is more like Deren than those other ones

I think Ryan was speaking more of narrative invention in commercial narrative features, so I wouldn’t necessarily include Deren, Brakhage, Vertov, Mekas, Warhol etc.

Oh, Celine and Julie Go Boating, among other Rivette films.

thanks everyone. Definitely interested in non-commercial recs.

Well, there’s Brakhage and Bresson and Bunuel without even getting out of the B’s.

Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” is probably the place to start; it’s had an incalculable influence on film and the great thing about it is that it doesn’t make anymore sense now than it did in 1928. Among recent films, one that often gets overlooked is Jim Jarmusch’s “Mysyery Train,” in which three stories that occur at the same time are told sequentially. “Pulp Fiction,” which was released later, took this device and fractured it even further.

Tarkovsky’s “Mirror” jumps to mind immediately.

I like how Annie Hall’s structure—looking back on all his relationship experiences in a somewhat random order—mirrors the way he is in the relationships: erratic, unpredictable, confusing.

Atom Egoyan’s Exotica. Sweet Hereafter to an extent, but Exotica’s a better example. Also a better movie.

harmony korine –
gummo, julien donkey-boy

jean-luc godard -
hail mary, passion

john cassavetes –
faces

michael haneke –
71 fragments of a chronology of chance

Antonioni: L’Eclisse and L’Avventura – The first gives you the three acts, but not in the usual order. In the second, you have a mystery in which the real center of the story is a character is developed, in a somewht traditional fashion, and then removed from the literal narrative, only to haunt both the remainder of the film, and the viewer.

Very tough to track down, but well worth the effort:
Nagisa Oshima’s Death By Hanging – I think this film may best embody Oshima’s interest in unconventional storytelling over a commitment to a particular style. The first shape-shifts from faux-documentary to Brechtian farce, with flashbacks, leaps foreward, and numerous re-enactments of multiple situations, interactions with dream-characters and imagined characters, and the sense of perspective is in flux through the entire film. Stylistically it’s deliberately disjointed, and Oshima’s control of the wild shifts in tone and style is very tightly controlled, and a clear story does present itself, though it’s extremely challenging in the presentation.

Oshima’s Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief – from a little while later, nearly abandons narrative, though a consistent allegory and sense of social critique holds the film together. The overall story – which is shot in a textbook-prefect new wave stylishness – is broken up by a number of short commentaries, which are offered by (among others) an outside psychiatrist, a roundtable forum of commentators (Oshima, plus cast members from his previous feature films), and a drag Noh troupe converting their analysis of the two characters’ actions into Japanese folk songs.

The Oshima’s were being offered on a Japanese new wave site, and are available unsubbed in some Japanese Oshima box sets. I don’t know, but you may be able to locate subbed copies through HK DVD or YesAsia.

I’ll try and help you out and list the ones that come to mind for me. I’ll try and pick the films that focus on experimenting with the methodology of storytelling.

80’s to Present: Memento, Run Lola Run, Mulholland Dr., Magnolia

1940’s-70’s: Rashomon, The Killing, Citizen Kane, 8 1/2, Psycho, Ikiru, Breathless

I know there are TONS of others, but I’m too hungry to keep thinking of all of them! Ingmar Bergman films are also very good to look into.

Well, everything done by Alejandro González Iñárritu thus far would fall into that category. His ex-writer Guillermo Arriaga is pathetically obsessed with this style of storytelling — see his directorial debut The Burning Plain (2008) for a strong example of what not to do.

it was godard who said "“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.” so that would make a magnificant quote for your college course!

i would like to recommend aronofsky’s the fountain.

They may have booed it at Venice, but The Fountain was incredible.

Citizen Kane.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD… totally agree! I walked out of the theatre and almost bought a ticket for the show that was seating right after mine let out.
And some people think it’s gimmicky.. but MEMENTO has always been a favorite of mine.

I don’t think you should include Brakhage, or say, Un Chien Andalou - they are non-narrative driven to start with; so unless you want to start on a course with abstract films, avoid them. Memento is a good example since it’s clearly a narrative film, but considered as non-linear. Vital by Shinya Tsukamoto shares similar structure to it.
Last Year at Marienbad, well… one could argue whether there is a narrative or not, but I think it could pass. I suggest Mon Oncle d’Amerique by Alain Resnais instead. By the end, the audience achieves a sort of narrative closure but how it journeys there is truly inventive.
I also wouldn’t consider Bergman’s Persona as structurally inventive (except perhaps the beginning where various psychoanalytic images were introduced to achieve sublime result)-Persona might be disorienting and dreamy, those traits are quite inventive, but they are too common since there exist many films that rely on the audience intelligence/involvement/spiritual resonance for personal interpretation.

Kenji Uchida’s Stranger of Mine, if you can find it, I recommend. The film heavily relies on various character’s perspective in order to achieve its comedic effect.

Damn coding. Once more:

I don’t think you should include Brakhage, or say, Un Chien Andalou ; they are non-narrative driven to start with; so unless you want to start on a course with abstract films, avoid them. Memento is a good example since it’s clearly a narrative film, but considered as non-linear. Vital by Shinya Tsukamoto shares similar structure to it.
Last Year at Marienbad, well… one could argue whether there is a narrative or not, but I think it could pass. I suggest Mon Oncle d’Amerique by Alain Resnais instead. By the end, the audience achieves a sort of narrative closure but how it journeys there is truly inventive.
I also wouldn’t consider Bergman’s Persona as structurally inventive (except perhaps the beginning where various psychoanalytic images were introduced to achieve sublime result)-Persona might be disorienting and dreamy, those traits are quite inventive, but they are too common since there exist many films that rely on the audience intelligence/involvement/spiritual resonance for personal interpretation.

Kenji Uchida’s Stranger of Mine, if you can find it, I recommend. The film heavily relies on various character’s perspective in order to achieve its comedic effect.

In response to the above:

Even though Brakhage and Un Chien Andalou are non-narrative driven (it’s a good point), that is not to say they are devoid of narrative.

They are in fact even more interesting (to me at least) because a narrative still emerges from their experimental modes of expression. Brakhage’s film titles are evidence of this.
Narrative is not simply a character or plot conveyance. The images themselves arranged in a certain order can tell a highly effective story without dialogue or characters.

Buster Keaton’s SHERLOCK, JR. (1924)

Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

Rudolph Mate’s D.O.A. (1950)

Alain Resnais’ LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (1962)

Frank Perry’s THE SWIMMER (1968)

David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)