Metacinema
Metacinema, also meta-cinema, is a mode of filmmaking in which the film informs the audience that they are watching a work of fiction. Metacinema often references its own production, working against narrative conventions that aim to maintain the audience's suspension of disbelief.[1] Elements of metacinema include scenes where characters discuss the making of the film or where production equipment and facilities are shown. It is analogous to metafiction in literature.
History
[edit]Metacinema can be identified in art cinema of the 1960s such as 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) or The Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1969), and in the self-reflexive filmmaking of the French New Wave in films such as Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) and Day for Night (François Truffaut, 1973). Other examples include F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) and Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994).[2]
Community (2009–2015) is a sitcom which has elements of metacinema, particularly through the character of Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) who makes comments about himself and his friends being in a sitcom, such as commenting that they are in a bottle episode in the bottle episode: "Cooperative Calligraphy" (Series 2: Episode 8), and the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" (Series 2: Episode 5) consists of Abed making his own metacinema film.
