As debuted in Casablanca the flashback can be a very instrumental piece of cinematography. This was one of the very first movies to use this technique to portray past event in order to better explain the present situation of the actors. This differs from the continuous nature of Classical Hollywood. “Jumping” back and forth from past to present can be arduous on the viewer, or maybe it forces him to think about the movie being watched. These flashbacks keep the viewer constantly trying to anticipate the reason for and the explanation of the next scene. If not understood in one viewing, watching it a second time might not be a bad idea.
Fight Club and Memento are two movies that create this unknown sense of what has just happened. One by product of this non-linear production of movies is the desire of the viewer to watch the movie more than once, not necessarily because it was directed well, so they can better understand the plot. I had to watch Fight Club three times before I could fully grasp the reality that Tyler Durden is actually Edward Norton’s imagined personality. Memento is in the same category. Without the discussions in class the storyline would be cluttered into an unrealistic mess of repeated scenes which do not flow well. This adds to the case that Hollywood is an industrial machine designed to make money, and that is why these types of movies are designed so to attract viewers into succumbing to multiple screenings.
Joel Revis