Seeing and Be Seen
“If you gaze into the abyss, remember that the abyss gazes also into you.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Seeing comes with a kind of distinguished feeling of superiority. When we see things, we internalize the phenomenon of we are in the core of power and we are able to comprehend and judge the object in front of us that is seen. But when the observed turns 180 degree and join us to see: Roles are fundamentally changed and there is no way but internalize the observed in a way that is an entity from now on. The observed breaks the 4th wall.
Cinema is a magical field and we see the the most powerful examples of this technique -Breaking the 4th Wall- in the history of movie, I will mention few of them.
The first and the most important example of that technique is House of Cards I think. Frank Underwood was so profoundly powerful and dominant character; so, he was able to prevail to audience as an “entity” rather than a “character”.
When Jordan Belford looks at the camera and starts to talking with the audience, It was so busy and crowded moment. Nevertheless, It was also a perfect moment also since that was so dramatical to reveal Belford’s inner thoughts in a such chaos.
Last but not least, I don’t know is it a true example for breaking the fourth wall technique but I believe that Kissed By A Kisser (Xploding Plastix, 2008) is another -and strange- example. The feeling caused by the harmony and compose of the music is you are not the observer but you are observed and directed by the sound. It is so odd but I believe that it is a good example for application of a such technique into another medium while it is seen impossible.
