Narrative technique · used in 9 films
Letting characters or stories cross the boundary between fiction and the real world inside the film. It plays with how much we rely on stories to cope with life.
Examples
Orson Welles · 1973
Real interviews with de Hory and Irving sit next to staged scenes made to look real. The film keeps asking whether you can tell the difference.
Where to see it: The Picasso story: Oja Kodar's segment about forgeries is told like fact, then Welles admits it was invented.
David Cronenberg · 1983
Brian O'Blivion, a media theorist based on Marshall McLuhan, is dead and exists only on videotape, yet his tapes keep speaking to Max. By the end, a TV screen shows Max what to do next and he follows it. The film pushes the idea that what you watch can step out of the screen and run your life.
Where to see it: Ending: on a derelict boat in Toronto's Port Lands, Max watches a TV show him shooting himself, then says "Long live the new flesh" and does it.
Woody Allen · 1985
A character from a film steps off the screen into Cecilia's world. The other characters left behind on screen stop performing without him. The studio then sends the actor who plays him to fix things. Allen uses the idea to ask what movies promise us.
Where to see it: Tom Baxter leaves the screen. He notices Cecilia in the audience, steps out of the movie and runs off with her.
John Carpenter · 1995
The town of Hobb's End from Cane's novels turns out to be real. The people and places appear exactly as written, and the story begins to write itself. The film asks what happens when enough people believe a story.
Where to see it: The arrival: John and Linda drive to Hobb's End, where landmarks and residents appear just as Cane wrote them.
Woody Allen · 1997
Harry's invented characters appear alongside him and make him face painful truths about his own life. Stories he wrote are acted out in front of you. Allen uses it to show how Harry hides in his writing.
Where to see it: The drive. Harry meets his invented characters Ken and Helen, who force him to face painful truths.
Miloš Forman · 1999
Kaufman stages a wrestling feud so well that TV viewers and even his own manager cannot tell where the act ends. Later he says he has lung cancer, and his friends assume it is another hoax. You end up doubting him too.
Where to see it: The Jerry Lawler feud. A staged rivalry with the wrestler leads to an apparent piledriver injury and a Letterman appearance that turns into insults and a fight.
Spike Jonze · 2002
The film is about Charlie writing the script you are watching. By the third act, the story he feared to write takes over, and Orlean forces him into the swamp at gunpoint. The line between the real writer and the movie fades.
Where to see it: The swamp. Orlean forces Charlie to drive into the swamp, and Donald saves him.
Martin McDonagh · 2012
Marty's script drafts and the real violence blur together. The story keeps asking whether writing a violent ending is any different from living one.
Where to see it: The screenplay arguments: in the desert hideout, Billy and Marty argue about how the script should end while the real killing continues.
Terry Gilliam · 2018
Javier played Don Quixote in Toby's student film and has never let go of the part. He now lives as the knight, and Toby gets pulled into the story. The boundary between a movie role and a real person disappears.
Where to see it: Toby's return to Los Sueños. Toby meets Javier, now working as a tourist attraction, who is convinced he is the real Don Quixote.
Questions