Moviemaking is a time machine: narrative spliced into fragments and reassembled into a constant present, the end of a story shot before the beginning, which is shot after the middle.

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

... "you'd better go first or you'd better go last. No one will remember what come in the middle."
- "So what's the point of the middle than?" I asked. "If everyone only remembers the beginning and the end?"
-"Without the middle, being first or last means nothing."
The middle gave the rest its meaning.
Like life, maybe. People were born and then they died. Everyone remembers those events. But without the life in between...

In the beginning,middle, or at the end, PAIN is always part of every story.

The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.

The beautifully composed imagery of '12 Years a Slave' underscores the savagery of its subject, which is an American South not of knights and ladies but obscene values and a grotesque pageantry, every gorgeous shot of the languid landscape radiating toxicity like a hyperlush blossom that's poison to the touch.