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There are many different techniques and styles filmmakers use to dramatically tell stories, though none make audiences potentially more confused and off-balance than the use of reverse chronology, which reveals the plot of the movie in reverse order through the use of flashbacks or reversed scenes.
While most movies use these elements in some way to round out the story, there are a few movies that play out entirely in reverse order or have large and crucial scenes that are reversed which are crucial to the overall storyline, much like Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending Memento, which we’ll take a closer look at today.
10 Christopher Nolan’s Memento Uses Both Forward And Reverse Chronology
One of the most memorable examples of a movie with scenes moving in reverse is Christopher Nolan’s Memento from 2000, which helped launch the fan-favorite filmography that extended to other hits like Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy.
Memento explores the fragile psyche of a man with antegrade amnesia who uses polaroids, tattoos and hand-written notes to help him figure out a murder. Memento features two narratives running at the same time, with the scenes in black and white moving forward chronologically while the scenes in color moved in reverse to serve as flashbacks that revealed his forgotten memories.
9 1966’s Happy End Examined A Butcher’s Life Starting With His Execution
Director Oldřich Lipský added a darkly comedic take to reverse chronology with 1966’s Happy End, which told the life story of a butcher in reverse beginning with his execution in a guillotine, though the narration of the movie plays out chronologically.
When the butcher’s head is chopped off at the beginning of the movie, the narrator describes the butcher’s birth, and when he attends his school years he is actually serving time in prison. The movie works humorously in reverse while the narration flows forward to create an entirely different take on his life story that needs to be seen to be believed.
8 Betrayal Follows A Love Affair Between Best Friends As It Plays Out In Reverse
Harold Pinter’s 1978 play Betrayal is a noted work in reverse-chronology that was adapted into a movie in 1983 starring Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Hodge in 1983 by director David Jones.
Betrayal follows the course of a love affair that begins when the two finally come together as lovers, though the movie’s chronology moves in reverse back to the beginning of the affair, with only a few key moments moving forward chronologically as the movie explored the tense relationship between two best friends and the woman who came between them.
7 Peppermint Candy Starts With A Man’s Suicide Before Revealing Why
South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s follow-up to his directorial debut was 1999’s hit Peppermint Candy, which began traumatically with the suicide of a man on the train tracks after he leaves a school reunion.
The movie then flashes back to various important parts in his life that showcase his mental decline as well as the key moments that led him to those train tracks. As each jump back in time reveals his failures and lost loves that led him to his final moment, it also revealed the lost innocence of his youth that the hard world beat out of him over the years.
6 Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter Explored Life After A Tragic Accident
1997’s The Sweet Hereafter from director Atom Egoyan is based on a real-life tragedy that saw a number of schoolchildren killed in a school bus crash, and the movie follows the class-action lawsuit filed years after the incident which reopens old wounds.
The first scene of the film is set years after the incident in 1977 when the grieving parents and survivors are convinced to sue before the movie begins moving backward in the lives of the survivors all the way back to the fateful day of the accident.
5 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Features A Relationship In Reverse
Michel Gondry’s beautiful and unforgettable Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores the romantic relationship of Joel and Clementine (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, respectively) in reverse following a tragic break-up that drives Joel to have his memories of their relationship erased so he can move.
This takes viewers into his mind as he relives the worst and best moments of his relationships while the memories are erased, leading to a reversed development of their relationship that ultimately explores the notion of whether or not it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
4 5×2 Explores The Relationship Of A Divorcing Couple From The End To The Beginning
Much like the aforementioned Betrayal explored the beginning of a new relationship out of the ashes of an old one, François Ozon’s 5×2 followed the beginning and end of a romantic relationship as told in reverse, with the movie beginning in the offices of their lawyer as they discuss the specifics of their divorce.
5×2 then explores the dissolution of their relationship over a series of moments that move backward through key moments in their relationship that highlight their struggles with infidelity, the birth of their son, their happy wedding, and finally, when they first met and began to fall in love.
3 Shimmer Lake Investigates The Events Of A Bank Robbery Told In Reverse
2017’s Shimmer Lake from director Oren Uziel is a Netflix Original that follows a sheriff’s investigation into a bank robbery that involves his brother and friends as it plays out in reverse, with many reveals and details only coming into focus in the final moments of the movie.
Shimmer Lake features a story that doesn’t necessarily need to be told in reverse, though as the movie reveals play out and shock viewers it’s easy to see why filmmakers chose to use the technique to further increase the dramatic punch of Shimmer Lake, which has become a hidden gem among fans since it’s release.
2 Irréversible Is A Shocking And Brutal Example Of Reverse Chronology
Gaspar Noé is a filmmaker who has become known for pushing the limits of cinema with various techniques that have resulted in mind-blowing and usually grim movies like Enter The Void or Love, though his most shocking and unforgettable is without a doubt 2002’s Irréversible, which definitely comes with a graphic warning for viewers who haven’t seen the movie.
The movie even opens with the credits playing in reverse before opening with a brutal and shocking beating that begins the mystery of why such an action is happening. As the movie moves in reverse and the beaten man is hunted across the city by his attackers, viewers soon learn that he was responsible for the violent rape of a woman in an underground subway tunnel.
1 Tenet Featured A Forward Moving Protagonist In Inverted Time Sequences
Christopher Nolan has explored the effects of time and our perception of it across a number of movies that even included the aforementioned Memento, though it was 2020’s Tenet that introduced some of the director’s most mind-blowing scenes that saw a forward-moving protagonist engaged in dramatic inverted time sequences.
Tenet was revealed as a mysterious organization that uses technology from the future to invert time and perform missions to save the future. This resulted in a number of amazing and mind-blowing sequences that saw time moving in reverse (or forward) while characters moved in the opposite flow of time.
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