One of the key characteristics that makes Pulp Fiction (playing at the Ritz East on Wednesday at 7:30, tickets here) stick out in people’s minds is it’s nonlinear structure: the way the three main storylines are interwoven, connected, and intercut. The nonlinear narrative has been around forever, since stories have been told — Homer’s The Iliad being an early example. In literature, it became a popular method amidst the modernist movement. Films with nonlinear structures can be traced back as early as D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) or Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. (1924). However, one could say there was a renaissance of nonlinear films with the emergence of Quentin Tarantino into the film industry — his first two films (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) both being nonlinear.

It became something to replicate following the release of Pulp Fiction, when the popularity of the film was still in full swing. Filmmakers of the same era as Tarantino, such as David Lynch (Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Dr. (2001), Inland Empire (2006)), Steven Soderbergh (Schizopolis (1996), Out of Sight (1998), The Limey (1999), Full Frontal (2002), Solaris (2002), Che (2008)) and Christopher Nolan (Following (1998), Memento (2001), The Prestige (2006)) have utilized the nonlinear structure for many of their films (all of the previous parenthesized films). Nolan’s Memento lends a purpose to this structure in that it tells the story of a man with anterograde amnesia (short-term amnesia), so the audience observes the story through his perspective – piecing together memories through pictures and notes writtent to himself.

Nonlinear structure can obviously be used to revealing and interesting effect in a film and in special cases such as Memento, create a way for an audience to experience the story in the same way the main character does. But occassionally it can be extremely gimmicky or serve as a crutch to  otherwise poor plotting. Some films have been also accused of imitating the style of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in their structure, although it would seem crime films are particularly targeted simply because their similarity in genre as well — whether or not their plot structure is very similar to Pulp Fiction or not in telling multiple interwoven stories. Boondock Saints (1999) is one film that has frequently been accused of being a Tarantino knock-off.

What nonlinear films do you find particularly compelling? Which films use nonlinear storytelling most advantageously? Are there certain films that you feel are definite Tarantino knock-offs / copy-cats? Which films use nonlinearity as a gimmick rather than a tool? What is it about nonlinear narratives do you think people find apppealing / unappealing?

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