Movie supercut smashes the fourth wall
A supercut put together from 54 films showcases some of the best instances where the narrative broke through the fourth wall.
A supercut put together from 54 films showcases some of the best instances where the narrative broke through the fourth wall.
In film-making — or comics or theatre — you'll sometimes see the actors turn and address the audience directly, or make a reference to the fact that they're appearing in a piece of fiction, an entertainment. This is called "breaking the fourth wall" — after the idea that there's an invisible wall that separates the performer from the audience.
It's been used time and again to varying effect — and here, in an 8.5-minute supercut, freelance film journalist, screenwriter and film-maker Leigh Singer has compiled some of the finest examples.
Alas, there's no way Singer could have included them all. "The montage includes 54 different films (some used more than once) from perhaps the very first example of breaking the fourth wall right up to today," he said. "There were so many other great examples I couldn't find room for (sadly, The Dude and The Big Lebowski's narrator don't abide here)."
See if you can identify each of the 54 films in the video below. If you can't, there's a cheat sheet on Singer's Vimeo page — and he's keen to hear your thoughts, so send him a tweet to let him know what you think.