You know when you're watching a movie and you get so engrossed by it, that you feel like the characters are talking directly to you…
And then you realize that they are literally talking to you, and it turns out you're actually not going crazy like you and your parents thought you were. And then you have to cancel all your therapist appointments and psychiatric evaluations and you have to stop it just turns into this whole thing that I don't even want to get into.
Yeah we've all been there.
But honestly I've always found it so radical whenever a movie and its script decides to have some guts and chooses to break the 4th Wall as a storytelling tool because it's a hard form to pull off. It's because in a movie in which the main character talks directly to the audience and takes them through their story, you have to really be engaged with said character. Because if your main character is unlikable, or is doing things that put you off to him/her, and you can't find anything that wants you to keep listening to this specific character, then the entire rest of the movie, no matter how well written, directed, or acted, is hard to watch and seemingly in the gutter.
Now one thing I noticed about these three films is that one of the reasons that I personally consider them comedy classics, is because each their main characters are likable, relatable people that you immediately root for and sympathize with, and these movies all have great introductory scenes to that make you root for them. With Annie Hall, the opening monologue by Woody Allen's character Alvie Singer is at first jarring because we're not used to starting a movie with the main character talking to us directly about the story of the movie we're about to watch. But once you get past the initial shock value, his character (although maybe exactly like Allen in real life) is very natural, fleshed out, and quirk. He instantly comes off as the lovable loser type, but with a sarcastic and cynical outlook on life, until you see him talk about Annie, and you see the sincerity in his face and tone, and you become interested because although this guy (a guy who buys a book titled, "The Denial of Death") seemingly has a lot of trouble enjoying life, you can tell that was never the case when he was with Annie. Or like in Wayne's World when after their taping of Wayne's World Wayne instantly wakes up and starts talking to the audience like it's nothing, which was awesome because how causal Meyers treated the audience as if we were one of his fellow rock enthusiast knuckleheads. And Meyers absurdist comedy writing meshing with his SNL improv makes for a man child we just can't help but love. And with John Cusack it's a very different opening from the other two, as the camera pans to a close-up of his face listening to an old punk record as his entree face fills the frame as he talks about how much more dangerous heartbreak and misery is in songs rather than violent movies and video games. And asking funny, yet very true philosophical questions like, Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable? Or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"
The all these films are shot all have strong similarities when it comes to using color to reflect their character's emotional state and cinematography. They all use an average medium shot when characters are in conversation so that we can see everyone, and it's also just big enough so that if the character looks out at the audience or steps out of the audience for some kind of aside or soliloquy, it's not jarring and fits screen's frame nicely. While Wayne's World is full of bright colors because of the nature of its goofy tone and happy-go-lucky characters, High Fidelity uses a darker color palette because of the obvious tragicness of John Cusack's history with women and how love keeps eluding him or how he keeps messing things up. And then there is a nice blend of colors in Annie Hall, because we get to see the grimy, damp, and condensed colors of the neurotic and busy busy busy city of New York, and then the wide open shots and bright colors of southern California to reflect the openness of Californian culture and its feel of "free love."
But the final thing that I noticed between all three was that they put the idea of breaking the 4th all to use in a way that regular movies can't be done. They all have great moments of complete insanity or ridiculousness to show what the main character wishes would happen in their lives, they have their dream sequence, and then immediately after they are ripped from their ideal situation and brought back to reality. In Wayne's Word we have the use of multiple endings, where when we think the movie ends, Rob Lowe's character Benjamin the businessman has won and now is on a tropical vacation with Wayne's girlfriend. As we're thrown off by this completely dour ending, Wayne and Garth literally roll into screen as if on a conveyor belt and decide that they don't want this, and change it to a Scooby-Doo style ending. But then when they then pull the mask off of Benjamin and as always in Scooby-Doo, they find out it was Old Man Withers the owner of the haunted amusement park, they finally decide to do the super-ultra-happy ending. Here, Cassandra (Wayne's girlfriend), gets an unrealistic 7 album deal and Wayne is able to do Wayne's World again free of corporate control. Here, we see how breaking the 4th Wall allows for comedic effects and gags that you can't get out of any other comedy or script that doesn't have the rules of world where the characters can break the 4th Wall.
In High Fidelity we see this when his girlfriends new hippie boyfriend (played to perfect mellowness by Tim Robbins) comes to John Cusack's record shop to tell his character Rob that he needs to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and Tim Robbins' current one. In the confrontation you see Rob lose it and tell him off with expletives that only high-schoolers could think of, showing some real confidence to Rob's character. But then as soon as Rob tell him off, the movie makes a quick cut to the same conversation between the hippie and Rob, telling us that his blowup never happened. You then see him try to rush the Robbins and and starts spouting phrases and ridiculous threats that had to be scripted they're so elaborate, as his friends hold him back and the hippie flees. And then its cuts back to the same shot and point in the conversation, in which now his really shy and reserved friend, throws a phone at him, as they begin to beat him to death and then grab an air conditioner and smashing his head with it. And then it cuts back to that same point in conversation and shot again, and the movie tells us (without literally saying anything) showing us that all these scenes never happened and that these are all the things Rob wish he had the guts to do.
And in Annie Hall we see the famous scene in which Alvie and Annie are stuck in line for the movie, and during heir one-take (which I thought was very impressive) of their 3 minute scene, we constantly are listening to this snob of a self-claimed movie critic talking about the indulgences of filmmakers that makes us all want to gouge our ears out Oedipus style…if Oedipus gouged his ears instead of his eyes. But then Allen asks the audience what we're all thinking in, can you believe this guy? As then the movie does something unexpected, the snob leave the scene and starts talking to the audience too defending himself. And then Alvie responds by saying that he has no idea what that actor in the movie thinks of his work, then pulling said actor out from behind a poster to back Alvie up. Here we see how Alvie wished the world worked, by wishing that he was always right and that opinionated jerks always got what they deserved.
So as you can see, it's not easy nor the lest bit formulaic to make a movie that breaks the 4th Wall, but win done right solid production techniques, likable main characters that can capture an audience's attention and sympathy, and makes of some great gags with the 4th Wall breaks, then you may just have a comedy classic on your hands, much like these.
By Jackson Dockery
And then you realize that they are literally talking to you, and it turns out you're actually not going crazy like you and your parents thought you were. And then you have to cancel all your therapist appointments and psychiatric evaluations and you have to stop it just turns into this whole thing that I don't even want to get into.
Yeah we've all been there.
But honestly I've always found it so radical whenever a movie and its script decides to have some guts and chooses to break the 4th Wall as a storytelling tool because it's a hard form to pull off. It's because in a movie in which the main character talks directly to the audience and takes them through their story, you have to really be engaged with said character. Because if your main character is unlikable, or is doing things that put you off to him/her, and you can't find anything that wants you to keep listening to this specific character, then the entire rest of the movie, no matter how well written, directed, or acted, is hard to watch and seemingly in the gutter.
Now one thing I noticed about these three films is that one of the reasons that I personally consider them comedy classics, is because each their main characters are likable, relatable people that you immediately root for and sympathize with, and these movies all have great introductory scenes to that make you root for them. With Annie Hall, the opening monologue by Woody Allen's character Alvie Singer is at first jarring because we're not used to starting a movie with the main character talking to us directly about the story of the movie we're about to watch. But once you get past the initial shock value, his character (although maybe exactly like Allen in real life) is very natural, fleshed out, and quirk. He instantly comes off as the lovable loser type, but with a sarcastic and cynical outlook on life, until you see him talk about Annie, and you see the sincerity in his face and tone, and you become interested because although this guy (a guy who buys a book titled, "The Denial of Death") seemingly has a lot of trouble enjoying life, you can tell that was never the case when he was with Annie. Or like in Wayne's World when after their taping of Wayne's World Wayne instantly wakes up and starts talking to the audience like it's nothing, which was awesome because how causal Meyers treated the audience as if we were one of his fellow rock enthusiast knuckleheads. And Meyers absurdist comedy writing meshing with his SNL improv makes for a man child we just can't help but love. And with John Cusack it's a very different opening from the other two, as the camera pans to a close-up of his face listening to an old punk record as his entree face fills the frame as he talks about how much more dangerous heartbreak and misery is in songs rather than violent movies and video games. And asking funny, yet very true philosophical questions like, Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable? Or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"
The all these films are shot all have strong similarities when it comes to using color to reflect their character's emotional state and cinematography. They all use an average medium shot when characters are in conversation so that we can see everyone, and it's also just big enough so that if the character looks out at the audience or steps out of the audience for some kind of aside or soliloquy, it's not jarring and fits screen's frame nicely. While Wayne's World is full of bright colors because of the nature of its goofy tone and happy-go-lucky characters, High Fidelity uses a darker color palette because of the obvious tragicness of John Cusack's history with women and how love keeps eluding him or how he keeps messing things up. And then there is a nice blend of colors in Annie Hall, because we get to see the grimy, damp, and condensed colors of the neurotic and busy busy busy city of New York, and then the wide open shots and bright colors of southern California to reflect the openness of Californian culture and its feel of "free love."
But the final thing that I noticed between all three was that they put the idea of breaking the 4th all to use in a way that regular movies can't be done. They all have great moments of complete insanity or ridiculousness to show what the main character wishes would happen in their lives, they have their dream sequence, and then immediately after they are ripped from their ideal situation and brought back to reality. In Wayne's Word we have the use of multiple endings, where when we think the movie ends, Rob Lowe's character Benjamin the businessman has won and now is on a tropical vacation with Wayne's girlfriend. As we're thrown off by this completely dour ending, Wayne and Garth literally roll into screen as if on a conveyor belt and decide that they don't want this, and change it to a Scooby-Doo style ending. But then when they then pull the mask off of Benjamin and as always in Scooby-Doo, they find out it was Old Man Withers the owner of the haunted amusement park, they finally decide to do the super-ultra-happy ending. Here, Cassandra (Wayne's girlfriend), gets an unrealistic 7 album deal and Wayne is able to do Wayne's World again free of corporate control. Here, we see how breaking the 4th Wall allows for comedic effects and gags that you can't get out of any other comedy or script that doesn't have the rules of world where the characters can break the 4th Wall.
In High Fidelity we see this when his girlfriends new hippie boyfriend (played to perfect mellowness by Tim Robbins) comes to John Cusack's record shop to tell his character Rob that he needs to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and Tim Robbins' current one. In the confrontation you see Rob lose it and tell him off with expletives that only high-schoolers could think of, showing some real confidence to Rob's character. But then as soon as Rob tell him off, the movie makes a quick cut to the same conversation between the hippie and Rob, telling us that his blowup never happened. You then see him try to rush the Robbins and and starts spouting phrases and ridiculous threats that had to be scripted they're so elaborate, as his friends hold him back and the hippie flees. And then its cuts back to the same shot and point in the conversation, in which now his really shy and reserved friend, throws a phone at him, as they begin to beat him to death and then grab an air conditioner and smashing his head with it. And then it cuts back to that same point in conversation and shot again, and the movie tells us (without literally saying anything) showing us that all these scenes never happened and that these are all the things Rob wish he had the guts to do.
And in Annie Hall we see the famous scene in which Alvie and Annie are stuck in line for the movie, and during heir one-take (which I thought was very impressive) of their 3 minute scene, we constantly are listening to this snob of a self-claimed movie critic talking about the indulgences of filmmakers that makes us all want to gouge our ears out Oedipus style…if Oedipus gouged his ears instead of his eyes. But then Allen asks the audience what we're all thinking in, can you believe this guy? As then the movie does something unexpected, the snob leave the scene and starts talking to the audience too defending himself. And then Alvie responds by saying that he has no idea what that actor in the movie thinks of his work, then pulling said actor out from behind a poster to back Alvie up. Here we see how Alvie wished the world worked, by wishing that he was always right and that opinionated jerks always got what they deserved.
So as you can see, it's not easy nor the lest bit formulaic to make a movie that breaks the 4th Wall, but win done right solid production techniques, likable main characters that can capture an audience's attention and sympathy, and makes of some great gags with the 4th Wall breaks, then you may just have a comedy classic on your hands, much like these.
By Jackson Dockery
Good ideas in this, Jackson. You make some really good observations. I wonder about pulling it in even further though. If you were going to pull off a 4th wall scene, how, precisely would you do it? Why don't most comedies do this? Etc. But, good analysis here.
ReplyDeleteJackson, I agree that breaking the fourth wall is very hard to do as it to some extent disbands the suspension of disbelief and tells you that you're watching a movie, which if its going to be done much be for a very important purpose. In Annie Hall, the movie is all about Alvy's character and that cynical, neurotic type of person which makes sense to me why it would take a step further in the discussion of his character in putting the audience directly in conversation with him and his thoughts.
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