Self-Referential Cinema
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"A self-referential film is one which is about itself. Unlike the traditional narrative film, which seeks to maintain the illusion that what we are seeing is reality, the self-referential film wants to show that it itself is an illusion. Consequently, one often sees the camera, the mike, the movieola, the cutting board, even, occasionally, the audience—us. In showing that it is an illusion, however, the self-referential film also suggests another reality—that, for example, of the makers of the self-referential film we are seeing. This reality is presented as a more real reality than that which the ordinary illusion-film offers. All self-referential cinema becomes, then, a search for reality, or for truth." --Donald Richie, "Self-Referential Cinema" (1971) |
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“Self-Referential Cinema” (MoMA, 1971) is the title of a film retrospective held at the MoMA.
Blurb:
- SELF-REFERENTIAL CINEMA, an unusual series of films which explore the means and processes of filmmaking itself, will begin May 14 at The Museum of Modern Art. Among the films selected by Donald Richie, Curator of Film, from many different genres and periods, are Bergman' s "Persona," Dziga Vertov' s "The Man with a Movie Camera," Ken Jacobs' "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son," Vilgot SjtJman's "I Am Curious (Yellow & Blue)," H.C. Potter's "Hellzapoppin," Fellini's "8 1/2" and Godard' s "Contempt."
See also