Interrogating the Image

[torinfan]

Interrogating the Image (by Del Jacobs) explores a unique genre of movies: films that have been made on how they view the audience. Jacobs, a film professor at SCF, mentions films such as "The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Matinee", "The Truman Show", and "Pleasantville" in his book.



I had the opportunity to listen to him lecture at a local Borders bookstore tonight.





Interrogating the Image, Del Jacobs, Book - Barnes & Noble

[GoggleboxUK]

Aren't all movies directly concerned with this?



The Truman Show is primarily concerned with extreme method acting- to the point the actor believes he's not acting- but surely if you replace the word actor with director or producer then you're describing what the person in each of those roles is actually striving for: total belief in what's happening on the screen.



Even with movies that demand high levels of suspension of disbelief, Lord of the Rings for example, the goal is to take the audience into a reality.that is both unreal and yet absorbing and believable.



Or am I missing the point of the book entirely?

[CaptainWaggett]

All the films Torinfan mentions have a fictional audience within the film as well as the audience actually watching the film if you see what I mean.

[GoggleboxUK]

Thanks Cap'n, Isee. Sort of movie within a movie effect where the audience watches an audience as well as the action.

[torinfan]

name='GoggleboxUK']Thanks Cap'n, Isee. Sort of movie within a movie effect where the audience watches an audience as well as the action.

CaptainWaggett has it right. :)



I think it's an interesting subject for a book myself.