13 Facts About Fourth wall

Fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience.

Acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the suspension of disbelief between a work of fiction and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as though they were observing real events.

Fourth wall did not exist as a concept for much of dramatic history.

Presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern realistic theatre, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comic effect when a boundary is "broken" when an actor or character addresses the audience directly.

Fourth wall was used as an integral part of the plot structure and to demonstrate the character played by Michael Caine, in his eponymous breakout role in the 1966 film Alfie, who frequently spoke to the audience to explain the thinking and motivation of the womanizing young man, speaking directly to the camera, narrating and justifying his actions, his words often contrasting with his actions.

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In Mr Bean's Holiday the entire cast, together with massed extras, break the fourth wall while joining in singing "La Mer" by Charles Trenet, accompanied by a recording by the song's writer.

Funny Games has Paul and Peter repeatedly breaking the fourth wall by turning around and winking at the camera, talking to the audience by saying they are probably rooting for the family, addressing the film isn't at its feature runtime and smiling at the camera at the end of the film.

On television, breaking the fourth wall has been done throughout the history of the medium.

Fourth wall breakage is common in comedy-based programs, used frequently by Bugs Bunny and other characters in Looney Tunes and other later animated shows, as well as the live-action sketch comedy of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which the troupe brought to their feature films.

The Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on Daniel Handler's book series of the same name, incorporates some of the narrative elements from the books by having Lemony Snicket as a narrator character speaking directly to the television viewer that frequently breaks the fourth wall to explain various literary wordplay in a manner similar to the book's narration.

Furthermore, breaking the fourth wall can be used in meta-referencing in order to draw attention to or invite reflection about a specific in-universe issue.

Steven Conway, writing for Gamasutra, suggests that in video games, many purported examples of breaking the fourth wall are actually better understood as relocations of the fourth wall or expansions of the "magic circle" to encompass the player.

Method of breaking the fourth wall in literature is a metalepsis, which is a technique often used in metafiction.