Abstract
Among the many innovations complex or “puzzle” films have brought about in the last three decades, experiments with narrative time feature prominently. And within the category of nonlinear plots, the loop structure – exemplified by films such as Repeaters (Canada 2010), Source Code (USA/France 2011), Looper (USA/China 2012) or the TV-Series Day Break (USA 2006) – has established itself as an interesting variant defying certain norms of storytelling while at the same time conforming in most cases to the needs of genre and mass audience comprehension. In the first part of my paper, I will map out different kinds of repeated action plots, paying special attention to constraints and potentialities pertaining to this particular form. In the second part, I will address the issue of narrative complexity, showing that loop films cover a wide range from “excessively obvious” mainstream (e.g. Groundhog Day, USA 1992; 12:01, USA 1993; Edge of Tomorrow, USA/Canada 2014) to disturbing narrative experiments such as Los Cronocrimenes (Spain 2007) or Triangle (Great Britain/Australia 2009). Finally, a look at two early examples (Repeat Performance, USA 1947 and Twilight Zone: Judgement Day, USA 1959) will raise the question how singular the recent wave of loop films are from a historical perspective.
Highlights
Panoptikum nr 26 (33) 2021 prehension in forking-path films (2002) has its merits, but how many of them still hold true for a film like Mr Nobody (Belgium/Germany/Canada/France 2009), which goes two steps further in narrative experimentation? Warren Buckland, on the other hand, is right to highlight the degree to which a film like Lost Highway (USA/France 1996) defies norms of classical storytelling (2009), but does this hold true to the same extent for films like The Sixth Sense (USA 1999) or Run Lola Run, which in his anthology are subsumed under the same term (‘puzzle films’) as Lost Highway?
If we examine loop films that have already been made and loop stories that have already been written, we can see in table one that there are examples for all the variables listed: Table one: Questions concerning the structural patterns of the loops
I would maintain that the categories outlined in this essay cover a large segment of the fictional works based on loop structures in the broad sense defined above
Summary
Loop Structures in Film (and Literature): Experiments with Time Between the Poles of Classical and Complex Narration. Much has been written about the trend towards more complex narrative structures in film and TV series which, starting during the 1990s, gained momentum and breadth in the 2000s, and continues to influence the way stories are told in audiovisual media today. Much has been written about the trend towards more complex narrative structures in film and TV series which, starting during the 1990s, gained momentum and breadth in the 2000s, and continues to influence the way stories are told in audiovisual media today1 Catchy terms such as ‘mind-game films’ (Elsaesser 2009), ‘modular narratives’ (Cameron 2008), or ‘mind benders’ (Johnson 2005) have been introduced to label the films contributing to this trend. Panoptikum nr 26 (33) 2021 prehension in forking-path films (2002) has its merits, but how many of them still hold true for a film like Mr Nobody (Belgium/Germany/Canada/France 2009), which goes two steps further in narrative experimentation? Warren Buckland, on the other hand, is right to highlight the degree to which a film like Lost Highway (USA/France 1996) defies norms of classical storytelling (2009), but does this hold true to the same extent for films like The Sixth Sense (USA 1999) or Run Lola Run, which in his anthology are subsumed under the same term (‘puzzle films’) as Lost Highway?
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