The Best Fourth Wall Breaks

[Funcrusher]

In general I think they're a bit rubbish. Best of all time for me is the bit with Marshall McLuhan in 'Annie Hall'.

[SteveDave]

Yes! I've always loved this, and the whole film, I wish he'd been in so much more.

I was a bit alarmed to see him as God/John Doe in Dogma & the Bond Company Stooge in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. He's changed a lot. As we all have I'm sure.

[Icehaven]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUwhnO-nTLo <--- 20 seconds in.

I loved the Naked gun films as a kid, it was my first introduction to slapstick humour and, of course, Leslie Nielsen.

Good one, was thinking of that today but you beat me to it. What the diddly fuck is going on with the subtitles in that clip though?

[Custard]

Noticed one in Death Proof the other day

As Stuntman Mike is about to cause his first (screened) crash, he stops as he's about to get in the car, looks directly at the camera and either winks or smiles. Or both

Made me laugh anyway. Good ol Kurt Russells

[Endicott]

From Once More With Feeling

[Crabwalk]

Hitchcock's Marnie has a startling 4th wall break right at the top of the film; in fact, in the second shot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WCFomCJfl98#t=121s

Then Hitch shows up and provides another just a few minutes later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WCFomCJfl98#t=291s

What a mad, rapey film Marnie is.

[Barberism]

Has this been mentioned yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkxuxwoCwJE

"I do apolgise ladies and gentleman, events seem to have taken a most unfortunate turn."

[Endicott]

Having looked through this thread I think about half of you don't know what a 4th wall break is, but I can't be bothered to take you all to task, so you're the unlucky one Crabwalk.

Hitchcock's Marnie has a startling 4th wall break right at the top of the film; in fact, in the second shot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WCFomCJfl98#t=121s

No. He is looking at the empty safe, then he turns to look at the people in his office. edit to add, that this is signposted by the director making the next shot to be a shot of the empty safe, that he was just looking at.

Then Hitch shows up and provides another just a few minutes later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WCFomCJfl98#t=291s

No. Hitch just looks up and down the corridor, as you would coming out of a room.

[Crabwalk]

I don't feel particularly unlucky. Unless it turns out my film degree isn't worth the paper it's written on (hang on, wait a minute...).

As far as I'm aware, any acknowledgement of the audience through dialogue or gesture from the constructed fictional 'reality' on screen (or stage) counts as breaking the fourth wall. Most of the examples in this thread are fine as far as I can see (haven't checked every single one admittedly). What's your interpretation of 'breaking the fourth wall'?

Now onto my examples. Clip 1.



Sydney Potts looks right down the barrel and states 'Robbed.' Before turning to face in front of him and continuing his monologue with 'Cleaned out'. At which point he clearly gestures off-screen with his right hand to the empty safe.



How do we know he's gesturing at the empty safe? Because we cut straight to it, and the tilt of the camera angle shows that we're looking down at it.



We cut back to Potts who is talking to the people in front of him, who we in turn cut to. And look, if further evidence were needed, the guy in the middle is looking right at the safe we've just cut from.



It's on the ground, on the far side of the room - not hovering at eye level on the near side of the room. Nothing's on 'this' side of the room. This side of the room is the fourth wall.

At no point do we see a mysterious fourth person standing where Potts was looking when he delivered the opening word into the lens. There's nothing in the 'real world' of the scene to motivate his eyeline. If we were in the safe for the first shot he'd be crossing the line horribly with the subsequent cutaway and the spatial relationships would be absolutely fucked.

Hitch is screwing with us though, and playing with his common themes of gaze and perspective. And grabbing our attention in an unexpected way at the top of the film.



As for the second clip, his (admittedly very brief) meeting of our gaze follows a direct replica of the 'following the purse' shot that opened the film. That was the shot that preceded Potts' line into the camera. These coincidences don't happen by accident in Hitchcock's films. In a (very loose) sense he's already breaking the fourth wall in spirit just by placing himself in the shot so gratuitously, the tiny glance that says 'oh no, you've spotted me' is just another part of the fun.

BEAT THAT.

[Endicott]

As far as I'm aware, any acknowledgement of the audience through dialogue or gesture from the constructed fictional 'reality' on screen (or stage) counts as breaking the fourth wall. Most of the examples in this thread are fine as far as I can see (haven't checked every single one admittedly). What's your interpretation of 'breaking the fourth wall'?

Exactly the same as yours. I've seen some in this thread that I don't think count, but as I've been called on it I admit that 50% was a bit of an exaggeration.

I think your shot by shot description is more rigorous than I was and you are probably correct. There are some things though that I think are more ambiguous than you do. Though in retrospect perhaps I'm just trying to justify to myself why I came to my previous conclusion. For example, I think the man in the middle is looking at the other guys notes, not at the safe. I'm not 100% convinced about the safe's location, though I had missed the obvious gesture that you pointed out. I had looked at the shots of the room and concluded that it though it was ambiguous, there didn't look to be any space on the right, therefore it had to be on the left. However, I missed the gesture, so it's probably on the right. You win.

I guess I feel that 4th wall breaks should have a point, be it humour or audience collusion or whatever, and I couldn't see a point to this one, and so looked for an alternative explanation. I obviously looked too hard and missed the necessary clues.

[Crabwalk]

I guess I feel that 4th wall breaks should have a point, be it humour or audience collusion or whatever, and I couldn't see a point to this one, and so looked for an alternative explanation. I obviously looked too hard and missed the necessary clues.

The reason I chose Marnie is because it is at odds with most fourth wall breaking. The script doesn't call for it, and the narrative certainly doesn't. But it's typical of Hitchcock to unsettle us and make us think about the nature of our relationship with what we're watching. He's interfering with the fabric and language of cinema, and not for laughs or any obvious point.

I don't know exactly why he chose to open a psychological thriller with a moment like this, but trying to pick apart his directorial choices is great fun for (mega-wanky term coming up) readers of cinema.

Edit: If you've not seen Marnie by the way, it's a fascinating and strange  film. Says even more about Hitchcock's psycho-sexual, icy-blonde hang-ups than Vertigo (though it's less successful as a film).

[MuteBanana]

Dennis.

Dennis has a babysitter over who is expecting her boyfriend. The audience, and Dennis, are expecting the cliched good looking rebel. What turns up is Buzz from Home Alone playing a podgy, dumb goofball.


Dennis can hardly believe this is the guy his babysitter has been getting excited about.


As he lets him in, Dennis throws the camera this brilliant 'This guy is literally a moron' look.


I fucking love that scene and I love that film.

[Cerys]

Edit: If you've not seen Marnie by the way, it's a fascinating and strange  film. Says even more about Hitchcock's psycho-sexual, icy-blonde hang-ups than Vertigo (though it's less successful as a film).

I saw Marnie just over twenty years ago, but I don't remember spotting quite how Freudian that bag is.  Yellow labia surrounding a shining clitoris ... have I perhaps just become more filthy with age?

[Nuclear Optimism]

I was watching the Shining recently and I'm sure there was a scene when Jack glanced at the camera. Not the bit when he's at the bar and cracks up laughing; it was after he had a row with Wendy, and he storms out of the apartment. As he's rushing to the door, he looks over at the camera. I think.

Does anyone have the scene handy? Maybe I just mis-saw it.

[Nuclear Optimism]

Eh, now I'm not sure. It's borderline.

[SteveDave]

Those are terrifying.

[Kane Jones]

Those are terrifying.

If somebody walked towards me and glanced at me like that in a pub I'd actually shit myself and burst out crying.

[Serge]

Bizarrely, a colleague mentioned that specific scene from 'The Shining' at work today and I had to ask whether he was secretly on this forum....

[Cerys]

And was he?

[Serge]

He said not - but who can tell?

Hello Kit, if you're reading this.

[Nuclear Optimism]

So do we think that he's breaking the 4th wall, or are his eyes accidentally looking in that direction?

[neveragain]

I think a fourth wall break only occurs when the character looks towards us in order to directly comment on a recent event, in a film where everything else has been played naturalistically. So I would say Marnie example with Hitchcock doesn't count as the 'character' isn't saying anything by glancing towards us for a split second, as amusing as it is to be glanced at by the all-knowing director. The Shining one is more probable but if he's just looking directly forward then it doesn't have the 'gazing out into our souls' (pardon?) quality that is needed for it to count. We haven't moved any further.

[Glebe]

Have main-character-addressing-audience-throughout films been mentioned yet? Because I find those kind of films generally quite annoying. The one example I can think of is Shirley Valentine[nb]The King Theoden steak and chips movie.[/nb], which is a decent film but I still find the straight-to-camera thing annoying when used through the whole film. It's kind of like (some) musicals, chick flicks and bad comedies, where it's like 'Oh, we're really not bothered that you came to see a film!'

[Cerys]

That's why the best fourth wall break in it is the unspoken one:

There's one I've been trying to place for ages, and I've only just put my finger on it.  Shirley Valentine, when Shirley is rescued from loneliness by Jeanette and Dougie from Manchester.

Bear in mind that the film began life as a play in which Shirley spent a fair amount of time talking to the audience.

[El Unicornio, mang]

My favourite is in The Rock.
Sean connery and nick cage are dismantling a rocket, and Sean connery is being a bit rough with it.
Nick cage tells him off and Sean connery looks at the camera.
Fucking epic!
Massively against the flow of the movie.

If someone can find a clip of this, it's great to see.

I watched this last night and I'm pretty sure the look to camera was accidental.

[Urinal Cake]

Here a non-funny fourth wall break http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av8gM3RC6To&t=1m40s and you have to watch the whole damn movie for it's impact.

[Noodle Lizard]

The very end of 'The Holy Mountain' certainly qualifies for the daftest fourth wall shatterings of all time.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Two minutes into this Horse Feathers compilation, where Groucho, as Chico launches into a piano number in the background, approaches the camera and says: "I've got to stay here - there's no reason why you folks shouldn't go out into the lobby 'til this thing blows over."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8hk9pUtVwA

The Monkees did it quite a few times during their TV show too, e.g. 15 seconds into this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OozgeKYLKkU

[Lyfjaberg]

He said not - but who can tell?

Hello Kit, if you're reading this.

I am stroking myself with pleasure at having found out your innermost secrets.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Alfie, of course, is a classic example of near-omnipresent fourth wall breakage. All of it from Mr Maurice Micklewhite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8166-kaEPQ