12 movies that expertly break the fourth wall
By Rachel Roth
5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Ferris Bueller is skipping school for a day of fun with his best friend, girlfriend, and the entire audience. The movie is one fun moment after another with Ferris making it his mission to demonstrate how to appreciate life. Ferris starts his iconic fourth wall breakage by explaining to the camera how and why he decides to skip school. Then continues talking to the viewers while he showers as if they’re friends he sees everyday. The movie is a one day mini vacation away from school, lead by the bad influence of Ferris Bueller. Bad influence and good life lessons.
In the post credit scene, Ferris walks out of his bedroom in a robe and stares at the audience as if they’re crazy. “What are you still doing here? It’s over, go home.” The day is over and it’s back to school tomorrow, but we want to hang around a little while longer. A friend you had over for a sleepover that just won’t leave.
Fun fact, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off post-credit scene is a gag from the 1970’s The Muppet Movie, when the muppet, Animal, tells the audience to “GO HOME!”
4. Annie Hall
Written and directed by the king of ranting, Annie Hall is 93 minutes of a cynical comedian complaining his way through life. Annie, a quirky singer, is his ex-girlfriend that he spends the movie reminiscing about. It’s set up like a collection of thoughts tied together and regurgitated as they’re remembered. The breaking of the fourth wall is not just breaking the wall between audience and character, but breaking the wall between the character’s person and their mind. As a character tells a story, the others gather inside the memory to watch. A whole story told in past tense with commentary. When Allen and Keaton are talking in her apartment, their thoughts appear on the bottom of the page showing what is happening on both the inside and outside at once. Annie is talking about her photography but she’s thinking, “he probably thinks I’m a yo-yo.”
Allen addressing the audience is an extension of this. During a flashback of a fight he had with his first wife, she accuses him of starting a fight because he doesn’t want to have sex with her; he turns to the camera and says “Oh my God, she’s right.” This moment already happened in the past and his commentary is him reliving the moment, finding a new perspective.