Metacinema: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Self-reflexive mode of filmmaking}} |
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| ⚫ | '''Metacinema''', also '''meta-cinema''' |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} |
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| ⚫ | '''Metacinema''', also '''meta-cinema''', is a mode of filmmaking in which the film informs the audience that they are watching a work of fiction. Metacinema often references its own production, working against narrative conventions that aim to maintain the audience's [[suspension of disbelief]].<ref>Ames, Christopher. ''Movies About the Movies''. p. 15</ref> Elements of metacinema include scenes where characters discuss the making of the film or where production equipment and facilities are shown. It is analogous to [[metafiction]] in literature. |
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==History== |
==History== |
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Examples of metacinema date back to the early days of narrative filmmaking. In the 1940s, backstage musicals and comedies like ''[[Road to Singapore]]'' ([[Victor Schertzinger]], 1940) |
Examples of metacinema date back to the early days of narrative filmmaking.{{cn|date=September 2022}} In the 1940s, backstage musicals and comedies like ''[[Road to Singapore]]'' ([[Victor Schertzinger]], 1940) and ''[[Hellzapoppin' (film)|Hellzapoppin']]'' ([[H. C. Potter]], 1941) exhibited a vogue for exploration of the medium of film at a time when Hollywood classicism dominated.<ref>Ames, Christopher. ''Movies About the Movies''. p. 41, 56</ref> Metacinema can be identified in art cinema of the 1960s like ''[[8½]]'' ([[Federico Fellini]], 1963) or ''[[The Passion of Anna]]'' ([[Ingmar Bergman]], 1969), and it can often be found in the self-reflexive filmmaking of the [[French New Wave]] in films like ''[[Contempt (film)|Contempt]]'' ([[Jean-Luc Godard]], 1963) and ''[[Day for Night (film)|Day for Night]]'' ([[François Truffaut]], 1973). Other examples include ''[[F for Fake]]'' ([[Orson Welles]], 1973) and ''[[Through the Olive Trees]]'' ([[Abbas Kiarostami]], 1994).<ref>Stam, Robert. ''Reflexivity in Film and Literature''.</ref> |
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[[Community (TV series)|''Community'']] (2009–2015) is a sitcom which has elements of metacinema, particularly through the character of [[Abed Nadir]] ([[Danny Pudi]]) who makes comments about himself and his [[List of Community characters#Main characters|friends]] being in a sitcom, such as commenting that they are in a [[bottle episode]] in the bottle episode: "[[Cooperative Calligraphy]]" ([[Community (season 2)|Series 2]]: Episode 8), and the episode "[[Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples]]" (Series 2: Episode 5) consists of Abed making his own metacinema film. |
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Metacinema continues to flourish in art films and comedies where experimentation with narrative conventions is encouraged.<ref>Seidman, Steven. Comedian Comedy: A Tradition in Hollywood Film.</ref> |
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==Examples== |
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Notable examples of films of this type include (in chronological order): |
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* ''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'' ([[Dziga Vertov]], 1929) |
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* ''[[Gabriel Over the White House]]'' ([[Gregory La Cava]], 1933) |
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* ''[[Road to Singapore]]'' ([[Victor Schertzinger]], 1940) |
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* ''[[Hellzapoppin' (film)|Hellzapoppin']]'' ([[H. C. Potter]], 1941) |
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* ''[[Odd Man Out]]'' ([[Carol Reed]], 1947) |
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* ''[[Son of Paleface]]'' ([[Frank Tashlin]], 1952) |
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* ''[[Pardners]]'' ([[Norman Taurog]], 1956) |
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* ''[[Peeping Tom (1960 film)|Peeping Tom]]'' ([[Michael Powell]], 1960) |
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* ''[[La Jetee]]'' ([[Chris Marker]], 1963) |
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* ''[[8½]]'' ([[Federico Fellini]], 1963) |
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* ''[[Contempt (film)|Le Mépris]]'' ([[Jean-Luc Godard]], 1963) |
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* ''[[Trans-Europ-Express (film)|Trans-Europ-Express]]'' ([[Alain Robbe-Grillet]], 1966) |
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* ''[[I Am Curious (Yellow)]]'' ([[Vilgot Sjöman]], 1967) |
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* ''[[La Chinoise]]'' ([[Jean-Luc Godard]], 1967) |
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* ''[[I Am Curious (Blue)]]'' ([[Vilgot Sjöman]], 1968) |
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* ''[[The Passion of Anna]]'' ([[Ingmar Bergman]], 1969) |
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* ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' ([[Stanley Kubrick]], 1971) |
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* ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar (film)|Jesus Christ Superstar]]'' ([[Norman Jewison]], 1973) |
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* ''[[Day for Night (film)|Day for Night]]'' ([[François Truffaut]], 1973) |
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* ''[[The Holy Mountain (1973 film)|The Holy Mountain]]'' ([[Alejandro Jodorowsky]], 1973) |
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* ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' ([[Mel Brooks]], 1974) |
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* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'' ([[Terry Gilliam]] and [[Terry Jones]], 1975) |
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* ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' ([[James Frawley]], 1979) |
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* ''[[The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)|The French Lieutenant's Woman]]'' ([[Karel Reisz]], 1981) |
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* ''[[Halloween III: Season of the Witch]]'' ([[Tommy Lee Wallace (filmmaker)|Tommy Lee Wallace]], 1982) |
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* ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]'' ([[John Hughes (filmmaker)|John Hughes]], 1986) |
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* ''[[Spaceballs]]'' ([[Mel Brooks]], 1987) |
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* ''[[Epidemic (film)|Epidemic]]'' ([[Lars von Trier]], 1987) |
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* ''[[Close-Up (1990 film)|Close-Up]]'' ([[Abbas Kiarostami]], 1990) |
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* ''[[Wayne's World (film)|Wayne's World]]'' ([[Penelope Spheeris]], 1992) |
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* ''[[The Player (1992 film)|The Player]]'' ([[Robert Altman]], 1992) |
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* ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' ([[John McTiernan]], 1993) |
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* ''[[Wes Craven's New Nightmare]]'' ([[Wes Craven]], 1994) |
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* ''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]'' ([[Barry Sonnenfeld]], 1995) |
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* ''[[Living in Oblivion]]'' ([[Tom DiCillo]], 1995) |
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*[[Demon Knight|Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight]] ([[Ernest Dickerson|Ernest R. Dickerson]], 1995) |
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* ''[[Irma Vep]]'' ([[Olivier Assayas]], 1996) |
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* ''[[Funny Games (1997 film)|Funny Games]]'' ([[Michael Haneke]], 1997) |
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* ''[[Bowfinger]]'' ([[Frank Oz]], 1999) |
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* ''[[Being John Malkovich]]'' ([[Spike Jonze]], 1999) |
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* ''[[Fight Club]]'' ([[David Fincher]], 1999) |
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* ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'' ([[Dean Parisot]], 1999) |
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* ''[[The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (film)|The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' ([[Des McAnuff]], 2000) |
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* ''[[Scream 3]]'' ([[Wes Craven]], 2000) |
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* ''[[Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2]]'' ([[Joe Berlinger]], 2000) |
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* ''[[Shadow of the Vampire]]'' ([[E. Elias Merhige]], 2000) |
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* ''[[Mulholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Drive]]'' ([[David Lynch]], 2001) |
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* ''[[Return to Cabin by the Lake]]'' ([[Po-Chih Leong]], 2001) |
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* ''[[Adaptation (film)|Adaptation]]'' ([[Spike Jonze]], 2002) |
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* [[American Splendor (film)|''American Splendor'']] ([[Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini|Shari Springer Berman]], [[Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini|Robert Pulcini]], 2003) |
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* ''[[Seed of Chucky]]'' ([[Don Mancini]], 2004) |
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* ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]'' ([[Shane Black]], 2005) |
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* ''[[A Cock and Bull Story]]'' ([[Michael Winterbottom]], 2006) |
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* ''[[Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon]]'' ([[Scott Glosserman]], 2006) |
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* ''[[Stranger than Fiction (2006 film)|Stranger Than Fiction]]'' ([[Marc Forster]], 2006) |
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* ''[[On The Road With Judas]]'' ([[J.J. Lask]], 2007) |
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* ''[[Funny Games (2007 film)|Funny Games]]'' ([[Michael Haneke]], 2007) |
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* ''[[Synecdoche, New York]]'' ([[Charlie Kaufman]], 2008) |
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* ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' ([[Ben Stiller]], 2008) |
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* ''[[Be Kind Rewind]]'' ([[Michel Gondry]], 2008) |
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* ''[[Nine (2009 live-action film)|Nine]]'' ([[Rob Marshall]], 2009) |
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* ''[[Rubber (2010 film)|Rubber]]'' ([[Quentin Dupieux]], 2010) |
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* ''[[The Artist (film)|The Artist]]'' ([[Michel Hazanavicius]], 2011) |
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* ''[[The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)]]'' ([[Tom Six]], 2011) |
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* ''[[The Strawberry Tree]]'' ([[Simone Rapisarda Casanova]], 2011) |
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* ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'' ([[Drew Goddard]], 2012) |
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* ''[[Seven Psychopaths]]'' ([[Martin McDonagh]], 2012) |
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* ''[[Holy Motors]]'' ([[Leos Carax]], 2012) |
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* ''[[Get a Horse!]]'' (2013) |
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* ''[[The Dirties]]'' ([[Matt Johnson (director)|Matt Johnson]], 2013) |
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* ''[[This Is the End]]'' (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, 2013) |
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* ''[[Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)]]'' ([[Alejandro González Iñárritu]], 2014) |
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* ''[[Jersey Boys (film)|Jersey Boys]]'' ([[Clint Eastwood]], 2014) |
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* ''[[The Creation of Meaning]]'' ([[Simone Rapisarda Casanova]], 2014) |
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* ''[[Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam]]'' ([[R. Parthiepan]], 2014) |
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* ''[[Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser]]'' ([[Fred Wolf (writer)|Fred Wolf]], 2015) |
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* ''[[The Big Short (film)|The Big Short]]'' ([[Adam McKay]], 2015) |
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* ''[[Taxi (2015 film)|Taxi]]'' ([[Jafar Panahi]], 2015) |
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*''[[Be My Cat: A Film for Anne]]'' (Adrian Țofei, 2015) |
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* ''[[Deadpool (film)|Deadpool]]'' ([[Tim Miller (director)|Tim Miller]], 2016) |
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* ''[[Amityville: The Awakening]]'' ([[Franck Khalfoun]], 2017) |
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* ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (2017 film)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' ([[Casey Wilder Mott]], 2017) |
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* ‘’[[Super deluxe (2019) ]]’’ ([[Thiagarajan Kumararaja]],2019) |
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* ''[[AK vs AK]] (2021) |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
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5 Ciciotti R. Metacinema, Lulu ed. 2007 |
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{{Film genres}} |
{{Film genres}} |
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[[Category:Metafiction]] |
[[Category:Metafiction]] |
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[[Category:Metafictional techniques]] |
[[Category:Metafictional techniques]] |
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[[Category:Self-reflexive films]] |
[[Category:Self-reflexive films| ]] |
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Latest revision as of 16:57, 26 October 2023
Metacinema, also meta-cinema, is a mode of filmmaking in which the film informs the audience that they are watching a work of fiction. Metacinema often references its own production, working against narrative conventions that aim to maintain the audience's suspension of disbelief.[1] Elements of metacinema include scenes where characters discuss the making of the film or where production equipment and facilities are shown. It is analogous to metafiction in literature.
History
[edit]Examples of metacinema date back to the early days of narrative filmmaking.[citation needed] In the 1940s, backstage musicals and comedies like Road to Singapore (Victor Schertzinger, 1940) and Hellzapoppin' (H. C. Potter, 1941) exhibited a vogue for exploration of the medium of film at a time when Hollywood classicism dominated.[2] Metacinema can be identified in art cinema of the 1960s like 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) or The Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1969), and it can often be found in the self-reflexive filmmaking of the French New Wave in films like Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) and Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973). Other examples include F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) and Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994).[3]
Community (2009–2015) is a sitcom which has elements of metacinema, particularly through the character of Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) who makes comments about himself and his friends being in a sitcom, such as commenting that they are in a bottle episode in the bottle episode: "Cooperative Calligraphy" (Series 2: Episode 8), and the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" (Series 2: Episode 5) consists of Abed making his own metacinema film.
