Nonlinear narrative a linear storyline, while nonlinear films often contain linear sequences. Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" (1941)—influenced structurally by "The Power and the Glory" (1933)—and Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950) use a non-chronological flashback narrative that is often labeled nonlinear. Experimentation with nonlinear structure in film dates back to the silent film era, including D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916) and Abel Gance's "Napoléon" (1927). Nonlinear film emerged from the French avant-garde[5] in 1924 with René Clair’s "Entr'acte", Dadaïst film and then in 1929 with Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's "Un Chien Andalou" (English: "An Andalusian Dog"). The surrealist film jumps into fantasy and
Un Chien Andalou appears near the door. The young man and the young woman stare at his hand, which has a hole in the palm from which ants emerge. A slow transition occurs focusing on the armpit hair of the young woman as she lies on the beach and a sea urchin at a sandy location. There is a cut to an androgynous young woman, with bobbed hair and dressed in rather masculine attire, in the street below the apartment. She pokes at a severed human hand with her cane while surrounded by a large crowd held back by policemen. The crowd clears