Meta in Film and Television Series

378 Pages·2022·34.926 MB·English

by  David Roche

Cover

Half Title
Meta in Film and Television Series

Title Page
Meta in Film and
Television Series
David Roche
Copyright
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in
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© David Roche, 2022
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Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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Typeset in Garamond MT Pro by
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and printed and bound in Great Britain.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 3995 0803 2 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 3995 0805 6 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 3995 0806 3 (epub)
The right of David Roche to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003
(SI No. 2498).
Contents
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments xii
Preface xiii
Part I The Theory and History of Meta
Chapter 1 What Is Meta and Who Uses the Term? 3
“That’s so meta” 3
Metafiction, Metanarrative, Metafilm, Metacinema,
Metafilmic . . . and Reflexivity 6
A Theoretical Proposition 15
Chapter 2 How Does Meta Work? 19
Typologies of Metafiction, Metareference,
Metacinema, etc. 19
Problems when Doing Meta 25
Chapter 3 When, Where and Possibly Why Did Meta Appear? 35
A Short History of Reflexivity and Meta in Film and
Television 35
Is Meta Specific to Western Culture? 38
Did Meta Come from Literature? 41
Did Meta Come from Modernism and/or the
Avant-Gardes? 44
Are the Origins of Meta the Same in Television as
in Film? 48
Can Silent Films Be Meta Anyway? 51
A Series of Tentative Conclusions 56
Part II The Aboutness of Meta
Chapter 4 Industry and Creation 61
Movies about Making Movies 61
More than Just about the Industry (Sunset Blvd., Contempt,
Mulholland Dr.) 67
vi Meta in Film and Television Series
Allegories of the Film and Media Industry (Westworld) 83
Conclusion 90
Chapter 5 Apparatus and Spectatorship 92
Movies about Movie-going 92
Movie-going as Ritual (Cinema Paradiso) 95
Adventures in Metalepsis (The Purple Rose of Cairo) 99
Allegories of Spectatorship Revisited (Rear Window,
Blow-up, Blow Out) 106
Conclusion 120
Chapter 6 Medium and Materiality 122
Synchretism, Intermediality, Remediation 122
Cinema and the Fine Arts (Fellini Roma) 125
Film, Television, Video (Family Viewing) 132
Film and Comics (American Splendor) 139
Digital and Interactive Media (Black Mirror:
Bandersnatch) 145
Conclusion 150
Chapter 7 Adaptation and Remake 152
Engaging with the Original: Statements of Intent
Part I (The Portrait of a Lady) 152
Adapting the Metafictional Novel (The French Lieutenant’s
Woman, A Cock & Bull Story, Inherent Vice) 159
Metadaptations (Adaptation, Psycho, Bram Stoker’s
Dracula) 169
Conclusion 178
Chapter 8 Genre 180
This Is a Genre Film/Series and You Know It:
Statements of Intent Part II 180
Is Parody Essentially Meta? (Lemonade Joe, My Name Is
Nobody, Blazing Saddles) 185
The Ethics of Genre Play (Funny Games, Scream,
Community) 191
Conclusion 203
Chapter 9 Seriality 205
Metamoments in Series 205
Allegories of Seriality (This Is Us) 208
Metaseries (LOST, The Prisoner, Twin Peaks) 213
Conclusion 230
Contents vii
Chapter 10 History and Historiography 232
Historiographic Metafiction (Culloden) 232
Are Allohistories Always Meta? (Inglourious Basterds, The
Man in the High Castle) 239
Self-conscious Historical Film (Schindler’s List, JFK, No) 247
Conclusion 257
Chapter 11 Politics 259
The Political Potential of Meta (Tout va bien) 259
Questioning the Efficacy of Political Films and Series
(Colossal Youth, Black Mirror, I, Daniel Blake) 265
Conclusion 279
Conclusion 281
Notes 291
Glossary of Meta-phenomena 317
Filmography 318
Bibliography 323
Index 339
List of Figures
Figures
3.1 Through the Olive Trees: the movements of Hossein and
Tahereh appearing dot-like 40
3.2 The Magic School Bus: the Producer of The Magic School Bus
receives a phone call from a viewer 50
3.3 Man with a Movie Camera: the cameraman passes under
a bridge 53
3.4 The Cameraman: Buster salutes his diegetic audience 55
4.1 Sunset Blvd.: Norma Desmond steals the light from her
youthful self on screen 72
4.2 Sunset Blvd.: Norma Desmond turns into a spectral
image 73
4.3 Contempt: auditioning Nausicaa at a live performance
reminiscent of shadow puppetry 78
4.4 Mulholland Dr.: on the stage of the Silencio 81
4.5 Jurassic Park: the T-Rex’s jaws burst through the jeep’s
roof window 85
4.6 Westworld: Maeve comes face to face with the theme
park’s promotional video 87
5.1 Cinema Paradiso: Alfredo directs the projector outside
the movie theater 98
5.2 The Purple Rose of Cairo: Cecilia, bathed in the light
coming from the movie screen 101
5.3 The Purple Rose of Cairo: Tom Baxter addresses Cecilia
before stepping out of the movie/screen 104
5.4 Rear Window: Stella, Lisa and Jefferies watch the
neighbors 111
5.5 Blow-up: projection: Thomas’s shadow blots out the
figures on the photograph 115
5.6 Blow-up: cognition: Thomas connecting two
photographs 116
5.7 Blow-up: abstraction: the photo loses its figurative
properties 117