Mind-bending films that stunningly experimented with time

When filmmakers experiment with time in inventive and hitherto unseen ways, it's a joy to behold — provided they have something interesting to say in a gripping manner, without being gimmicky.

Citizen Kane (1941)

There's a reason we see Orson Welles's extraordinary directorial debut on most 'best of' lists. Welles and then-newcomer cinematographer Gregg Toland crafted a mesmerising, thought-provoking rise-and-fall tale for the ages.

Rashomon (1950)

The name of Akira Kurosawa's multi-perspective film — which attempts to trace the events leading up to a crime — later became associated with any work of fiction that tells a story from the P.O.V of different characters.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Every revisit of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, which makes massive time leaps in a way no film did before, reveals a new detail we didn't think of before — a testament to its supreme storytelling prowess.

Pulp Fiction (1994) | Reservoir Dogs (1992)

When you see 'Pulp Fiction' after 'Reservoir Dogs', you learn that the latter was a rehearsal for the former, in which Quentin Tarantino upped his game with more sophistication and confidence.

The Prestige | The films of Christopher Nolan

Which film of Nolan isn't an experiment with time? Even his most straightforward films, like 'Batman Begins' and 'Insomnia', play briefly with time. However, his works mentioned in the title took it to an entirely different level.

Hero (2002)

The best contemporary example of a Rashomon-style narrative is from director Zhang Yimou, who painted each "perspective" with a different colour palette, resulting in a one-of-a-kind audio-visual experience.

City of God (2002)

The Brazilian crime epic utilised a mindblowing non-linear narrative for a raw, gritty and violent tale that's at once a coming-of-age and gangster drama, the influence of which we can see in Indian films 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and 'Kammattipadam'.

The Tree of Life (2011)

We can split Terrence Malick's filmography into pre-Tree of Life and post-Tree of Life, given how the film, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, saw Malick reinventing himself. It's '2001' for the new generation.