Reflections ; Unconventional Narrative Form; Reverse Narrative

The first narrative structure that came to mind when reading the brief was the reverse narrative, this form is very interesting to me and is one i have only seen done succesfully on a handful of occasions.

The most well known/ commercially successful film to use this narrative form is undoubtedly Momento (Dir. Nolan, 2000). Momento is split into two different narrative sequences, the first; a series of black and white scenes that are shown in chronological order and the second; a series of scenes in colour shown in reverse order. The sequences represent the different forms of the protagonists memory (or lack there of) and converge at the end to show one common, complete narrative.

Another film that uses the reverse narrative form (and in my eyes uses it most thoroughly and to the best effect) is Irreversible (Dir, Noe. 2002). The film shows the events of a night out in Paris in reverse order (even going so far as to have the end credits roll UP the screen at the beginning of the film) revealing shocking plot points as the film progresses (an excellent film but not for the weak stomached >.<)

Another film worth mentioning that uses this form is 5x2 (Dir. Ozon, 2004) which splits its narrative form into five episodes in reverse chronology.