MovieChat Forums > The Boys (1998) Discussion > Addressing the Audience?

Addressing the Audience?

posted 17 years ago by zygmunt
3 replies | jump to latest

I was just watching the scene where Nola first says she wants to leave; Stevie is nonplussed, but Brett comforts her.

Michelle looks back over her shoulder and says "This is what you should be doing". Obviously she's talking to Stevie, but from the way the shot is set up she is almost also addressing the camera, as if to tell the audience this is what we should all be doing more of in our lives?

Anybody else think this is a deliberate attempt at breaking the fourth wall, or am I just reading too much into the way this shot is arranged?

Zygmunt

[–] jazzpiano- 16 years ago

...I think you're reading into it too much. The camera just happens to be positioned close to Anthony Hayes' character.

[–] douglas111 15 years ago

I take a position half way between the two of you. Michelle is addressing Stevie not the audience. But the director wants us to see that line through Stevie's eyes. This grabs us by the collar and places us in the room. The director demands we experience the moment, rather than just observe it. The brilliance of this technique is that the director deploys it rarely. In this instance, when a woman like that fixes you with those eyes, and speaks in that tone, it nails your feet to the floor.

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

Anybody else think this is a deliberate attempt at breaking the fourth wall, or am I just reading too much into the way this shot is arranged?

Arranged I think to highlight again perhaps the theatrical heritage and origins of the film. It is the sort of scene IMO, you could imagine happening in the right sort of theatrical environment.