Metacinema

Metacinema, also meta-cinema, analogous to metafiction in literature, is a mode of filmmaking in which the film does not let the audience forget they are watching a work of fiction.

Examples of films of this type include (in chronological order):

• Hellzapoppin' (H. C. Potter, 1941)
• Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
• La Ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)
• 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
• Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
• I Am Curious (Yellow) (Vilgot Sjöman, 1967)
• I Am Curious (Blue) (Vilgot Sjöman, 1968)
• The Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1969)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (Norman Jewison), (1973)
• Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973)
• The Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)
• Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975)
• The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979)
• The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 1981)
• Spaceballs (Mel Brooks, 1987)
• Epidemic (Lars von Trier, 1987)
• Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
• Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)
• Last Action Hero (John McTiernan, 1993)
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare (Wes Craven, 1994)
• Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1995)
• Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995)
• Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)
• Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
• Bowfinger (Frank Oz, 1999)
• Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
• Scream 3 (Wes Craven, 2000)
• Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige, 2000)
• Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
• Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
• Seed of Chucky (Don Mancini, 2004)
• A Cock and Bull Story (Michael Winterbottom, 2006)
• Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Scott Glosserman, 2006)
• Stranger Than Fiction (Marc Forster,^[1] 2006)
• On The Road With Judas (J.J. Lask, 2007)
• Funny Games (2007 film) (Michael Haneke, 2007)
• Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
• Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)
• Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008)
• Nine (Rob Marshall, 2009)
• The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011)
• My Week With Marilyn (Simon Curtis, 2011)
• The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)
• Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012)
• Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
• Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2014)
• Drifts (Ricardo Costa, 2014)
• Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam (R. Parthiepan, 2014)
• Here Lies (Duncan Ward,^[2] 2014)

References