BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL
the great and sadly cheated of his incredible legacy, fatty arbuckle, did some wildly inventive work. the earliest forth wall scenes i am aware of and play incredibly brilliantly.
william randolph hearst was scum
I kind of always love this. The Goodfellas vs Casino thread reminded me of that particular instance—probably the G.O.A.T.—but I can’t think of any examples of this being done badly. How about the narrator in La Ronde?
Best Fourth Wall Break in a New Film:
the fly landing on the camera lens in Drag Me To Hell
Head…you see Jack Nicholson & Bob Rafelson when Peter Tork breaks through during the diner scene.
There was a Christan Slater movie called “Kuffs” where he keeps breaking the fourth wall.
Yeah, Holy Mountain was a huge one. Plus there was Bergman’s Persona.
There are 2 brief scenes in Garrel’s Les Amants Réguliers (Regular Lovers) where Lilie (Clotilde Hesme) turns directly to the camera. In one scene she asks François (Louis Garrel) if he has seen the movie Before the Revolution, than slowly turns to the audience and says “Bernardo Bertolucci”. A very nice little dig.
The scene in Young Frankenstein where Gene Wilder says something akin to having to face up to their situation with “quiet dignity and grace”, before going into one of his trademark meltdowns; Marty Feldman looks at the camera while Wilder is going apeshit: “Quiet dignity and grace” he says sarcastically – great moment.
Saraband by Ingmar Bergman
Head
Bergman’s The Passion
Seito, at the very beginning of Grave of the Fireflies, as well as a short bracketing look at his audience at the end as Setsuko goes to sleep on his lap. Also, Kevin Costner in JFK, toward the end when he finishes his summation, looks directly at the viewer, and says “It’s up to you.”
Orlando
Certain moments in WOYZECK when Kinski looks right at you on certain lines. And in AGUIRRE too, come to think of it.
Purple Rose of Cairo
Malcolm in the Middle
In Neverending Story, I think there is a breaking of “the fourth wall” in which the young man recognizes that the book he is reading contains him.
As Larrytalbot and Berjuan have already given examples of, Bergman does this rather frequently (and often brilliantly). My favourite would probably be the final scene in Summer with Monika. Quite subtle and absolutely haunting.
He often also, to great effect, lets the audience take the place of one of the characters i.e. lets one of the other characters talk directly to the camera as if it was that person. For example in Persona and Winter Light.
Paramount’s 1958 THE MATCHMAKER (Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins, Shirley MacLaine) from a play by Thornton Wilder retains the play’s direct address to the audience. THE MATCHMAKER was later musical-ized as HELLO, DOLLY! which also kept the asides to the audience (but the less said about that turkey the better).
DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLER [“The 3 from the Gas Station”], one of the last pre-Third Reich musicals to come out of UFA has — like THE GOLDEN COACH — a post-script where the actors acknowledge the audience.
And the great Malay writer/director/star/songwriter P. Ramlee also addressed the audience in his films, especially his Bujang Lapok (Good-for-Nothing Bachelors) film series.
Doug
www.postmodernjoan.com
What an interesting thread, even though it wasn’t really what I was initially searching for.
People are probably going to disagree with me here. I actually liked the effect in Kurosawa’s One Wonderful Sunday — not a film that’s often mentioned since he made greater films, but for me it’s one of my beloved postwar Kurosawas. Masako, standing on an empty stage, faces the audience and urges them to applaud so they can hear the music that they should have heard, had they managed to get tickets to the concert they were planning on attending that night. It actually serves as the climax of the film. However, I read the Criterion essay and unfortunately people in Japan weren’t at all engaged by this scene, and a silence ensued rather than Kurosawa’s intended audience participation. That was sad to hear. :( I guess it’s maybe too sentimental for people’s liking…
I guess an atypical Kurosawa in general, in terms of theme and also this incidence of breaking the fourth wall, but I still found it endearing, even if it doesn’t ultimately prove to be a memorable film for some.
Myra – I’m glad you brought up that moment in One Wonderful Sunday. It is atypical of Kurosawa (I can’t think of any other instances in his body of work), and from reading his “Something Like an Autobiography”, it seems like it wasn’t very well received by Japanese audiences.
@ Nathan: I don’t think it was unfortunately, which is a shame. There are some rather negative reviews out there. :( I haven’t seen a few of his earlier works, but I can’t remember an instance where he ever attempted that again. I wonder if it’s because of this initial disappointment? I have no idea.
Although, as noted in the essay, he did say that audiences in France were more willing ‘participants’ in the film! I guess that’s good to hear, at least.
I was going to mention Pierrot Le Fou. It caught me off-guard, to say the least.
I blame Reagan.
She said, “Will it change my wife.” You heard that because you were there so I’m not crazy.
Anton Walbrook in both La Ronde and Oh…Rosalinda! are my personal favourite examples of this. Plays an all-knowing narrator in both and escorts us through the plots of each, doing so with such infectious charm and wit.
They do this in…ROCKY AND BULLWINkLE!!!
So far both Godard films I have seen: Pierrot Le Fou and 2 Or 3 Things I Know About Her
Every film ever breaks the fourth wall.
Now we know Bruce…know we know.
T
Transdimensional NEH
I just found this on WIKI.
breaking the fifth wall
“In the TV show Scrubs, the Janitor, played by Neil Flynn, makes regular references to his life before working as a cleaner in the hospital. He claims to have appeared as a cop in The Fugitive, a typical early role played by Flynn. Since the Janitor has no name and Neil Flynn often improvises his own dialogue for the show, it could be argued that Flynn is not acting the part but simply playing himself…”
breaking the fifth wall.
—-an actor celebrating reality.