DB -- WEEK ONE

As an introduction to metacinema, Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. does a good job of laying a lot of the ideas and themes present in metacinema, although it takes until about seventeen minutes through the film for these ideas to reveal themselves.

The majority of Sherlock Jr. takes place within a movie within a dream, as Keaton’s projectionist protagonist falls asleep at the wheel, leaving his body and walking directly into his dream-screen. Keaton then pulls a gauntlet of visual gags that is thrilling with a sense of “How did he do that?” He plays with time and space directly in his first bit, the scene around him changing from a boulder in the ocean to a snowy forest to a lion’s cage. All of these scene changes take place on a screen within the screen, with an orchestra in front. We are directly being reminded that Keaton is in a movie, watching through a proscenium on the silver screen of Keaton’s dreams.

We then enter the screen with Keaton. In his dream world, he is an excellent detective and unable to be outsmarted. Keaton plays with some dramatic irony in the next bit, having a man and his henchman set up traps for Keaton, only for them to almost fall into the traps themselves. Dramatic irony in metacinema in a interesting idea, as we the audience know things the characters don’t, leading to the stakes being heightened without their knowledge. Here, Sherlock Jr. plays with that idea, especially within the motorcycle chase scene, where Keaton rides on the handlebars of a motorcycle through a series of escalating near-impossible stunts without knowing the driver has been absent for quite a while. Keaton makes his movie within a movie an exaggerated, exciting, dramatic piece. A direct contrast to his day to day life of living as a poor projectionist. Movies are a place to live out fantasies Keaton thinks, and so he does.

Peeping Tom also lives out some fantasies, although the opposite of Keaton’s dream action movie. The fantasies in Peeping Tom are more psychological and horrific. The ideas in this film were a bit more difficult to parse than Sherlock Jr. however. The main plot is pretty straightforward, a guy has an obsession with murdering women and filming their faces as they die, trying to get the perfect on-screen death. This seems to draw a direct parallel to horror films in general, trying to draw extreme emotion from deaths.

Dramatic irony was used in this film to great effect as well. When Mark meets with Vivian, after a shoot on the set, they both “prepare” for their roles. Vivian does a great dance routine while Mark moves everything for his shoot into place. Vivian’s happy demeanor and flamboyant dancing directly contrast Mark’s methodical planning for her death.

Visually, the biggest tie to metacinema is the film looking through Mark’s viewfinder. The movie opens with the first person view following a prostitute to her death. We are told immediately that we are looking through a viewfinder by the black cross that divides the screen into boxes, and the handheld nature of the camera movement. We return to this view multiple times throughout the movie, giving the viewer a viscerally disturbing insight into Mark’s murders.