Out of Time

| | Comments (427) |

I've been noticing an unusual amount of movies with fractured timeframes recently.
This weekend's releases "The Prestige" and "Flags of Our Fathers" are the two latest to jump around between past and present, all but willy nilly, within their period settings. Others that have done so to a distracting extent include "The Illusionist," "All the King's Men," "The Science of Sleep," "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" and "The Black Dahlia."
And I can't say I've really liked any of them. Not because their non-chronological narratives were hard to follow - done right, as it was in "Prestige" director Christopher Nolan's "Memento" and most of Quentin Tarantino's films, non-linear storytelling adds extra intrigue, resonance and sheer enjoyment to a plot - but because it tends to undercut character and thematic developments just as they're getting interesting. As soon as you're getting involved, for example, in the ironies of "Flag's" history-distorting fund-raising tour, director Clint Eastwood takes you back to the Battle of Iwo Jima that inspired it, to watch some Marine characters you hardly know die hideous deaths. And vice versa, presto change-o.
It's frustrating, especially when compared to the season's more effective dramas - "The Queen," "Little Children," even "The Departed" and "Marie Antoinette" - which tell their stories in a straightforward flow with minmal to no flashing back or forward.
That said, filmmakers have every right to manipulate time as well as space in their movies. And, convinced that some do it for better reasons than just to cover up lame or ludicrous scripts, I asked Nolan, one of the past masters at this, why it has became so prevalent and what the tricks to doing it well were.
"It's never been an unusual thing in storytelling generally, in novels or drama," the English director noted. "I mean, it goes back to 'The Odyssey.' Only in films.
"This is my gross oversimplification. 'Citizen Kane' (1941) was the epitome of the flashback structure. What happened after that, effectively, was that television came along, and all movies had to be made to be watched on telelvision, ultimately, from the 1950s onward. What that means is, when the doorbell rings and you have to get up and go pay the pizza guy, when you come back and sit down you have to be able to have, basically, missed 10 minutes of the movie and still follow it.
"With the invention of home video, that changed. The doorbell rings, you press pause, then you come back and pick up exactly where you left off. So suddenly, all kinds of narrative freedoms that novelists and the earliest filmmakers enjoyed are viable. And DVD particularly, because it has the random access feature that lets you flip around like the chapters of a book or a magazine, prompts everybody to think in different terms.
"I think it's very much just getting movies back on track," Nolan concluded. "The key is, there has to be purpose and there has to be reason for non-linear stories."
Perhaps it's those elements that are absent from the underwhelming non-chronological movies of recent vintage. But I'll be the first to admit that the strategy can work marvelously when it's integral and well thought-out. Proof comes next Friday when "Babel," the latest time-warping meta-tragedy from Mexico's directing/writing team of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo Arriaga, hits theaters. They've done this kind of thing quite nicely before in "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams," but "Babel" takes it to a new height of formal, dramatic and humanistic grandeur.
It's well worth anyone's time.

427 Comments

Jordan said:

Usefull information and all is good arranged. http://tinylink.eu/ste3e

Ringtone said:

Wonderful articles. Thanks for such a nice information http://shurl.org/motorola

Brianna said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://blogs.kaixo.com/gambeling

Jenna said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://samsungringtones.foros.tv/

Alex said:

Excellent resource you've got here! http://tramadol-side-effects1.blogspot.com/

Levitra said:

I just don't have much to say recently http://myurl.com.tw/d8hp

Jessica said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://allaboutheadsets.blogspot.com/

Cellphone said:

Nice resource, very interesting reading. http://s1u.net/inob

Student said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://www.iwannaforum.com/repayment/

qmcvfj ichuqykm mgdqaknb huxnbaqk dogkhu ndlwopf xwav

nsjoaf zdvtpqesk qxvumh fpjun horyetvpg fesghwx pvetfx http://www.eivohgnwd.gbhxc.com

Skateboards said:

Not much on my mind today, but whatever http://ringers.maxblog.pl/

Snowboarding said:

Nice resource, very interesting reading. http://snowboarding.iphorum.com

Boxes said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://jewelleryboxes.vdforum.ru

Wonderful articles. Thanks for such a nice information http://engagementring.blogtopia.com/

Thank you for a very informative site. http://www.blog.fory.pl/jackets/

Armani said:

Really amazing! Keep working. http://jackets.jubiiblog.co.uk

Lasik said:

Thank you for a very informative site. http://generators.aceblog.fr

Ultrasound said:

Really amazing! Keep working.
http://ultrasound.vdforum.ru

What a great site and excellent resource you have. http://junkyard.forum24.se

Diets said:

Thank you for a very informative site. http://diets.spotbb.com/

Beddings said:

Really amazing! Keep working.http://blogs.krify.com/beddings/

Acuvue said:

Excellent resource you've got here! http://acuvueoasys.aceblog.fr/

Tramadol said:

This site rocks! Keep up that excellent work! http://tramadol12.vdforum.ru/

Gift said:

Nice resource, very interesting reading. http://gifts123.iquebec.com

Beddings said:

Usefull information and all is good arranged. http://girlsbeddings.vdforum.ru/

bbo777modw said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

lko777morr said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

hmo777mobf said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

rqo777moir said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

ero777moec said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

sdo777monb said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

uro777moft said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

wro777mouq said:

Very nice point of view! Respect!

Leave a comment

About this blog

Bob Strauss writes about entertainment for the Los Angeles Daily News.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Bob Strauss published on October 22, 2006 1:48 PM.

Movies Are Getting Better, But Read a Book Anyway 3 was the previous entry in this blog.

A Less Boring Borat? I Tried is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Recent Comments

ro681ck on Out of Time: m960k ...

wro777mouq on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

uro777moft on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

ro231ck on Out of Time: m249k ...

sdo777monb on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

ero777moec on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

rqo777moir on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

hmo777mobf on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

lko777morr on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

bbo777modw on Out of Time: Very nice point of view! Respect! ...

Powered by Movable Type 4.25

Advertisement

Other blogs

Bradford, Williams Honored in Inside USC with Scott Wolf
Monday Catch-Up in 100 Percent Soccer
My report card for UCLA/Zona, what's yours? in Inside UCLA with Jon Gold
HS BASE: Crespi's Mason and Hubbard commit to Stony Brook in Daily News High School Spotlight
The Ocho Cinco News Network ... confirming, we're on the road to nowhere in Farther Off the Wall