I think context and directorial style matter, though. Placing eyeline closer to the camera can also be used to intensify dramatic effect and in the case of some directors (e.g. Ozu) is simply a normal way of shooting coverage. At what point the actor is actually supposed to be “looking at the audience” is not something that’s uniform across all films/eras/places.
Oh, I definitely agree. Almost every Wes Anderson film has characters staring right into the camera, for example, but the context and framing make it obvious that they aren’t breaking the fourth wall.
But the Eddie Murphy example in Trading Places definitely is breaking the fourth wall. I guess my point is the characters don’t have to talk to the audience for it to be considered a true “break”. A look is enough.
I thought she was speaking directly to the kid reading the book.
The very premise of the movie is fourth-wall breaking though, with the whole “Just as he has followed your adventures, others have followed his adventures” thing.
I would like to add The Baby Of Macon (by Peter Greenaway). It is a movie about a boy born to a supposed-to-be-virgin (Julia Ormond) in France in the 16th century (maybe 17th century)… The people of Macon go mad… It is a beautiful and brutal movie (with Ralph Fiennes). In this movie nothing is safe. You have rape, murder, birth, sex, cannibalism… all in one package. There is a scene in that movie where many people left the theatre … unbearable.
But this movie is also portrayed like it is a play on a stage. There is an intermission where you can see the actors leaving their role… so it is both, a play with an audience and a movie. At the end the actors go on stage face the audience (both the real audience and the play audience). They take their applause… but the dead virgin (Julia Ormond) stays dead … is it building the 4th wall or is it breaking it? I think both at the same time… like the whole movie. It is very playful about the 4th wall breaking.
Reminds me of Triumph of Love, with Ben Kingsley and Mira Sorvino. It was clever and lightweight, modeled after Twelfth Night – so completely opposite in tone. But it had that same play within a movie structure.
The final scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I am not able to find a YouTube clip of.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is all about the fourth wall. I really love that movie.
I love Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, too, but I don’t believe it actually breaks the fourth wall. The audience knows they’re two lesser characters from Hamlet, but the characters don’t really understand what’s happening to them.
Mind you, it’s been a while since I’ve seen either the movie or the play. Do they ever refer to the audience directly? I don’t recall.
It’s not a movie, but it’s better than just about anything else in the thread…
Cheech Marin breaks the fourth wall in From Dusk Till Dawn.
CHEECH MARIN: If you can find cheaper pussy anywhere else, (to audience) fuck it!
If my memory is correct, just before the execution, Guildenstern looks directly at the camera and yells fire. To be honest though, the fourth wall breaks fully with the paper airplane for me.
It’s a long time since I’ve seen that but I don’t believe they do.
The basement scene in ‘Fight Club’ is probably my favourite fourth wall break - “you’re not your fucking khakis”. I wonder if that film still resonates as strongly with me now that I’m older and deeper in debt.
There’s a difference between looking at the camera and actually breaking the fourth wall. If there wasn’t then Cloverfield would qualify.
“python grail end” didn’t work for you?
“Hah. Flashback humor.”
For all the times I’ve watched Alien, how did I never catch this?
Oh man, that’s awesome, but probably about as intentional as camera shadow. I wouldn’t characterize it as breaking the fourth wall so much as the director using a take with a weird error. Ridley Scott doesn’t do meta.
Still, I’ll never be able to unsee that now. Very cool.
-Tom
I used this gif the other day in reply to particularly stupid comment on reddit
not quite the fourth wall though (its his World of the Psychic TV show in Ghostbusters 2) but Murray uses the scene throughout as if it was.
Right? In my head, I always misremembered that scene as the chimes being disturbed by their fight, but that’s clearly not what happens.
These 3x3 thread necros are hurting my head. I read the original few posts thinking it was brand new and I kept things “Really? Deadpool didn’t make anyone’s top 3? Anyone?”