Saturday, 3 February 2018

terminology - What is the technique called when series of events in a film are played in reverse order?

For example, Memento (2000) is presented as two different sequences of scenes: a series in black-and-white that are shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order.


Another example I can remember is Seinfeld's 9th season episode "The Betrayal".


Does this style have a name in movie jargon?


Answer


Well, I've found out that term is Reverse Chronology. Wikipedia gives some nice details together with the examples of use in movies & TV.



Reverse chronology is a method of story-telling whereby the plot is
revealed in reverse order.


In a story employing this technique, the first scene shown is actually
the conclusion to the plot. Once that scene ends, the penultimate
scene is shown, and so on, so that the final scene the viewer sees is
the first chronologically.


Many stories employ flashback, showing prior events, but whereas the
scene order of most conventional films is A-B-C-etc, a film in reverse
chronology goes Z-Y-X-etc.



No comments:

Post a Comment

casting - Why wasn't Tobey Maguire in The Amazing Spider-Man? - Movies & TV

In the Spider-Man franchise, Tobey Maguire is an outstanding performer as a Spider-Man and also reprised his role in the sequels Spider-Man...