Breaking the Fourth Wall: Direct Address in the Cinema

What Happens When Fictional Characters Acknowledge Our 'presence' As Film Spectators? By Virtue Of Its Eccentricity And Surprising Frequency As A Filmic Device, Direct Address Enables Us To Ask Some Fundamental Questions Of Film Theory, History And Criticism And Tackle, Head-on, Assumptions About The Cinema As A Medium. Brown Provides A Broad Understanding Of The Role Of Direct Address Within Fiction Cinema, With Focused Analysis Of Its Role In Certain Strands Of Avant-garde Or Experimental Cinema, On The One Hand, And Popular Genre Traditions (musicals And Comedies) On The Other.