Film narratives are significant for two reasons: 1) they describe the different temporal experiences of individuals and 2) they reflect and reveal the shapes and patterns of larger social histories (of nations, communities, and cultures). The significance of film narrative never functions independently of historical, cultural, and industrial issues.

Film narratives shape memory by describing individual temporal experiences. In other words, they commonly portray the changes in a day, a year, or the life of a character or community. Narratives order the various dimensions of time—past, present, and future events—in ways that are similar to models of history used by nations or other communities and consequently shape our understanding of history.

There are two prominent types of narrative traditions. A classical film narrative usually centers on one main character (or characters) who moves the plot along with a cause-and-effect logic. The plot is typically linear and employs an omniscient or restricted narration that suggests some degree of realism. Two important variations on the classical narrative tradition are the classical European narrative and the postclassical narrative, a global body of films that began to appear in the decades after World War II and that strained but maintained the classical formula for coherent characters and plots. On the other hand, the alternative film narrative often deviates from or challenges linear narratives, undermines the centrality of a main character, and questions the objective realism of classical narration.