Week 1 Response

Sherlock Jr and Peeping Tom were both films that I had seen before but I had never gone into it specifically looking for the context of being meta or breaking the fourth wall. Now that I have, it is pretty clear that that kind of breaking of immersion is part of what makes these movies stand out. Although you might enjoy watching these two movies, and you should, it might take some extra reflection after the movie to figure out why. When a movie exposes itself as a movie, you can look at it more honestly. You tend to put more thought into the thematic choices because you are constantly reminded that someone put this work of fiction together just for you to understand it.

Let's start with Peeping Tom, so that we can end on a funny note. Peeping Tom fits all the basic requirements for meta cinema. The film is about a film. Large parts of the plot take place on a film set and the entire movie features a man filming more morbid movies of his own as we watch him do it. But beyond that, Peeping Tom does something really cool with it's metacinema. By showing us the point of view shots of his viewfinder, it turns us into more than just an audience member, it makes us part of the film crew. The way they present it to us, it is like we are the ones filming these snuff films ourself.

"I'm sorry! Michael Powell is making me do this!"

Beyond the plot being centered around making two different films (the big one, and his snuff films), the real clever use of meta cinema is reminding us of the camera in this super intimate way. If you consider the culture at the time of this movie's release, then the meta goes even deeper. Powell was shamed by his colleagues for making a "dirty" and "crude" movie, due to it's sexual undertones. Those at the time watching the movie in theaters probably shifted uncomfortably in their seats, thinking that they were being forced to sit through a snuff film in real life.

Now, as promised, back to the funny stuff. Although it's humor may have been lost on audiences at the time, Sherlock Jr. seems like a film that would hold up very well in today's comedy. Like Peeping Tom, Sherlock Jr. constantly reminds us that we are watching a movie, ignoring minor details like reality to do it. And also like Peeping Tom, the movie's plot centers around filmmaking itself. In the film's penultimate scene, our protagonist, the projectionist finds himself trapped within the film he's showing. Like my favorite comic character, Deadpool, he realizes right away that he is trapped within the medium. He finds himself victim to shenanigans that characters in a real movie wouldn't find themselves in: 

Like fully experiencing a smash cut...



Makes perfect sense. Metacinema is a powerful force. It can't be held back by puny physics and logic.