MovieChat Forums > Funny Games (1998) Discussion > Other Films That Break The 4th Wall

Other Films That Break The 4th Wall

posted 15 years ago by killerby3
36 replies | jump to latest

By this I mean films that let us KNOW we are watching a movie.

Funny Games
The Holy Mountain
The Boss Of It All

This is all I can think of at the moment. How about you guys?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] killerby3 15 years ago

I thought it was clear that I meant films that set out to break the suspension of disbelief. Most films want you to get lost in the movie and suspend your disbelief whereas a film like Funny Games directly shows you that you are just watching a film by having the characters talk to the audience. The Holy Mountain also reveals itself as just being a film, and in The Boss Of It All, Von Trier stops the films several times to address the audience, thus breaking the 4th wall.

Add to the list:
2001: A Space Odyssey (If you read Rob Ager's analysis you'll see why)

[–] ichbinsisyphos 15 years ago

Well, when the end credits roll ... maybe Blackadder is right after all ;-)

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] killerby3 15 years ago

Most films AIM to suspend the audiences disbelief, films like Funny Games set out to DESTROY the suspension of disbelief. These are the films I was talking about. When a scene cuts, the audience is asked to forget it and pretend that what they are witnessing is real... well of course that can never fully happen, but you can lose yourself in film (and if you can't then there is something wrong with you). Most films pretend that there isn't a camera crew just out of sight for the audience, but a film like The Holy Mountain makes a point of revealing the camera crew, thus irreversibly breaking the fourth wall.

I can't believe this is even a topic of debate. Even if you believe I have worded it badly you can surely see what I'm getting at, can't you?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] ena_simons 15 years ago

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Too weird to live, to rare to die!

[–] toruk-macto 15 years ago

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (the voice over directly addresses a cinema audience)

Spaceballs (Dark Helmet bumps into the camera, they play the film itself on a VCR to find out, where the good guys are hiding, and in a lightsaber fight, they accidently kill a crewmember)

I have heard of more, but cannot remember the titles. Sorry...

[–] Gloede_The_Saint 15 years ago

Multiple Woody Allen films. Often jokes like "Can you believe..."

Of the top off my head: Annie Hall and Whatever Works, he uses the trick in a lot of his other films as well but here it's a huge part of the style. In Annie Hall he has long conversations with the audience and in Whatever Works Larry David even says that the cinema audience is watching them, much to the confusion of the other characters, he also talks to us repeatedly while the other characters look at him as if he was crazy.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

[–] Gurtinator 15 years ago

Mel Brooks does it a lot, usually in pretty jarring ways:

- Blazing Saddles: The cast gets into a fight that spills over onto other sets, and the crew is seen packing up after the film ends
- Spaceballs: Dark Helmet watches an advance copy of the film to find where the main characters are hiding
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights: The cast consults their copies of the script when Robin loses a tournament he's supposed to win.

"So it goes" -Slaughterhouse Five

[–] kvarksor 15 years ago

400 blows (ending)
some roy andersson movie

[–] redrum_9 14 years ago

William Castle's "The Tingler"
Abbas Kiarostami's "Taste of Cherry"

[–] Allybubba 14 years ago

Scary Movie does, lol.

[–] cherry_d0ll 14 years ago

the neverending story