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The three-act or five-act structure can still exist even if the elements are not shown in order. It's the effect on the audience which is changed. In the case of Memento, you see the end first, an...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:45Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28725 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T06:38:33Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28725 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
The three-act or five-act structure can still exist even if the elements are not shown in order. It's the effect on the audience which is changed. In the case of _Memento,_ you see the end first, and then work backwards through all the successes and setbacks. The "end," the resolution, becomes an inciting event of sorts, because it is where the audience first enters the story. The inciting event in chronological time happens at the end of the film, which retroactively changes how the audience understands the series of events, so it acts as a climax. In _Pulp Fiction,_ the audience has to hold all the pieces of the narrative in their heads and slot items in chronological order as they appear in the film. In both movies, once the entire film is done, the events have now all been told to the audience, and the audience can review those events in linear, chronological order, which creates the standard three-/five-act rise-and-fall plot. It's the experience of learning the events out of order, and the retroactive "oh, _now_ that makes sense!" which makes these stories more interesting.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2017-06-15T11:22:22Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 2