As it turns out, chapters aren't only for novels. Sure, that's where you're most likely to see chapters used, as very few books will just be one long continuous block of text. In that format, chapters serve as good points for a reader to take a break, or otherwise serve as a way to break up certain scenes. In a movie, scenes can be cut up a little more naturally, given a scene can cut to a new location or a future point in time.
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Despite this, some movies still choose to use chapter titles between certain scenes or segments, usually done as a stylistic choice. It can be done if a movie is based on a novel that uses chapters, or it can be done by an original screenplay that ends up mirroring the structure of a novel. The following films are some of the best to do this, in the process showing how chapter titles aren't just for the books.
Chapter 1: 'Pulp Fiction' (1994)
Pulp Fiction is a film divided into several main stories that all revolve around a core group of characters. One sees a gangster having to take his boss's wife out for dinner, another sees two hitmen having to clean up a messy job gone wrong, and the third focuses on a boxer who gets on the wrong side of the mob by ripping them off.
Arguably, some of these stories can further be divided up, and in addition, the whole film is told in a non-chronological order that complicates things more. However, the three core stories that are given chapter titles are "The Gold Watch," "Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace's Wife," and then "The Bonnie Situation."
Chapter 2: 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' (2014)
Far from the first Wes Anderson movie to use chapter headings, The Grand Budapest Hotel is nonetheless one of his best when it comes to using chapters (and also just one of his best movies in general). It's a story within a story within a story, all revolving around a concierge and a lobby boy working for a prestigious hotel in the 1930s.
It divides its different time periods up visually, most notably through the use of different aspect ratios. At the same time, it also employs chapter titles that fit the film and its pacing, given its somewhat episodic narrative and large cast of characters. It also fits the framing device, which involves a character known as "the Author" having written about the events that are then shown playing out on screen.
Chapter 3: 'Kill Bill' (2003-2004)
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It's surprising that Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) finds time for chapter titles, given how much relentless action it contains. The first half of this revenge epic contains a great deal of violence and fight scenes, though Vol. 2 (2004) slows things down a little, focusing more on dialogue exchanges as The Bride gets closer to her main target: the titular Bill.
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All the same, chapter titles are used consistently throughout this Quentin Tarantino movie, fitting the film nicely, given it contains a large cast and has its protagonist traveling to many different places. There are a total of ten, with five in each volume. Thanks to the film's non-chronological order, the first chapter is cheekily named "Chapter 1: 2" (the Bride's second target is shown being taken care of first).
Chapter 4: 'Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters' (1985)
It's not surprising to learn that a movie called Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters ends up dividing itself into four chapters. It's a biographical film with a bold visual style and phenomenal score, and tracks the life of infamous Japanese author/political activist Yukio Mishima in a dynamic and exciting way.
It's an ambitious film that details the title character's past, and his dramatic final day on Earth while also dramatizing three of his short stories in ways that emphasize how they reflected his own life. There may therefore arguably be five "sections," but ultimately four chapter titles, which are "Beauty," "Art," "Action," and "Harmony of Pen and Sword."
Chapter 5: 'Elephant' (2003)
Elephant is an exceptionally dark and depressing crime-drama, given it's a slow-burn story about a devastating school shooting. The fateful day of the shooting is shown from multiple perspectives, giving insight into both the victims and the perpetrators of the attack.
Each chapter heading signifies a shift in perspective, as Elephant aims to capture as many viewpoints as possible within its fairly brief runtime. There ends up being a total of 12 chapters, with each one named after the character that each chapter focuses on.
Chapter 6: 'Donnie Darko' (2001)
An intensely dark and even nightmarish psychological thriller, Donnie Darko rightly stands as one of the definitive cult movies of the early 2000s. It's a film that gets stranger as it goes along, and honestly starts pretty strange, seeing as how the story kicks off with its title character surviving a dramatic accident, and then finds himself being plagued by strange visions that tell him the world's going to end.
The chapter titles are used to count down the time until this ominous world-ending event, creating a good deal of suspense and intrigue throughout the film. It's one reason why Donnie Darko ends up being such a gripping and unnerving movie to watch, and as such, the chapters ultimately strengthen the movie as a whole.
Chapter 7: 'The Worst Person in the World' (2021)
The Worst Person in the World begins as a romantic comedy but develops into something much heavier (and sadder) as it goes along. It follows a young woman who feels stuck in her current life, and in many ways is torn between being a young, carefree adult and being the kind of grown-up who's "supposed" to have their life sorted out, and their future set in stone.
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It's got some of the most prominent chapter titles in recent memory, with a total of 10 used throughout the film (or 12, if the Prologue and Epilogue are counted as chapters). It lets the movie cover a long period of time in a way that feels very natural, and also helps the divide between some of the funnier sequences and some of the heavier sequences feel less jarring.
Chapter 8: 'The Royal Tenenbaums' (2001)
An early Wes Anderson film that helped establish his love of chapter titles, The Royal Tenenbaums is a unique dramedy about a dysfunctional family that boasts an impressive cast. It focuses on the family's father (played by Gene Hackman) as he tries to reconnect with the other family members after not seeing them in a while.
Like The Grand Budapest Hotel, it also frames its story as if it were being adapted from a novel (despite the film having an original screenplay). There ends up being a total of 10 chapters (including a prologue and epilogue) that break up the story being told in the film.
Chapter 9: 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009)
A sweeping WW2 film packed with dark comedy, violence, and tension, Inglourious Basterds is certainly up there with Tarantino's very best films. It jumps around between different characters, many of whom are wrapped up in the Second World War and plotting to do as much damage to Nazi Germany as humanly possible.
For a film that's about two-and-a-half hours long, it's surprising that there are only five chapters: "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-occupied France," "Inglourious Basterds," "German Night in Paris," "Operation Kino," and "Revenge of the Giant Face." It might be a testament to the film's pacing that all of them fly by so quickly, with the final chapter being particularly satisfying, seeing as how it concludes the film's events in a mightily explosive way.
Chapter 10: 'Clerks' (1994)
Anyone who's ever worked a retail or customer service job that they haven't enjoyed owes it to themselves to watch the original Clerks from 1994. It was Kevin Smith's first movie and remains his best, telling a simple story about one particularly eventful day in the life of two young friends: one who works in a convenience store, and the other who works in a neighboring video rental store.
The day is broken up into sequences that are all introduced with chapter titles, many of which are quite obscure. These nine chapters end up reflecting The Divine Comedy, in the process potentially representing the Nine Rings of Hell. It might sound like a stretch to some to suggest that working in retail could be like working in Hell, but those same people probably haven't worked a retail job before.
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