The Silver Screen Oasis

I've been watching the David Suchet Poirot. In the opening he walks around turns around and removes his hat. He's the only one there so I'm assuming it's for the audience.

Some films had them all the way throughout: Tom Jones, Topkapi, Fiddler on the Roof, Alfie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Shirley Valentine...

And then of course, Hope and Crosby made an artform out of breaking the fourth wall in their road pictures.

CinemaInternational wrote: ↑March 7th, 2024, 5:14 am Some films had them all the way throughout: Tom Jones, Topkapi, Fiddler on the Roof, Alfie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Shirley Valentine...

...Annie Hall, any Shakespeare movie that has a monologue. Do main-character voice overs count?

If tv characters count, Tom Selleck as Magnum PI and Roger Moore as The Saint, would talk to the audience

FRED MacMURRAY thru all of DOUBLE INDEMNITY talks into a Dictaphone to Keyes... telling his own story.
BARBARA BEL GEDDES talks directly to the camera at least a couple of times in I REMEMER MAMA...
At the very end of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS ROBERT MORLEY looks directly in the camera and says: "This is THE END!"

Allhallowsday wrote: ↑March 9th, 2024, 4:09 pm FRED MacMURRAY thru all of DOUBLE INDEMNITY talks into a Dictaphone to Keyes... telling his own story.
BARBARA BEL GEDDES talks directly to the camera at least a couple of times in I REMEMER MAMA...
At the very end of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS ROBERT MORLEY looks directly in the camera and says: "This is THE END!"

Nitpick Alert, but does talking into a Dictaphone qualify?

laffite wrote: ↑March 9th, 2024, 5:25 pm

Allhallowsday wrote: ↑March 9th, 2024, 4:09 pm FRED MacMURRAY thru all of DOUBLE INDEMNITY talks into a Dictaphone to Keyes... telling his own story.
BARBARA BEL GEDDES talks directly to the camera at least a couple of times in I REMEMER MAMA...
At the very end of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS ROBERT MORLEY looks directly in the camera and says: "This is THE END!"

Nitpick Alert, but does talking into a Dictaphone qualify?

You're right. Who is he telling the story to? Keyes of course.

Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless.

I have a very narrow view of what breaking the fourth wall is: It is when an actor gets out of character and addresses the camera. Cosby and Hope Road films are a good example of that. (e.g. making jokes that are out of character and have no relation to the plot of the film).

This thread is titled Forth Wall movements, and it appears most people believe that when an actor, in character, speaks directly to the camera that qualifies. E.g. Martha Steward taking about a book to Bogart, in In a Lonely Place.

Here are some 4th wall moments from Boston Legal.
They saved my favorite until the end.

jimimac71 wrote: ↑March 13th, 2024, 2:00 pm Here are some 4th wall moments from Boston Legal.
They saved my favorite until the end.

Gotta say here jimimac, what I saw in that Boston Legal video clip I felt to be more the case of it being self-referential (aka now days as being "Meta") than of actors actually breaking the fourth wall.

(...btw, I loved that show too and never missed a first-run episode of it back then)

I will split this one with you Dargo. I feel your Meta term fits but not so much in the 21st Century sense.
It's a really old word. I believe my understanding of breaking the 4th wall is also correct.
Here is my rebuttal:

(I know you're laughing)

jimimac71 wrote: ↑March 14th, 2024, 3:58 pm I will split this one with you Dargo. I feel your Meta term fits but not so much in the 21st Century sense.
It's a really old word. I believe my understanding of breaking the 4th wall is also correct.
Here is my rebuttal:

(I know you're laughing)

LOL

Yep, you guessed right here, jimimac! Your "rebuttal" (no pun intended in this case) did indeed have me LOL-ing, alright!

(...butt, err, BUT allow me to remind you here that neither John Larroquette NOR Bill Shatner ever actually breaks the fourth wall in that scene in this "rebuttal" of yours, either!)

This never happened to the other fella...