Watch: Break The Cinematic Fourth Wall With This 5-Minute Supercut

For filmmakers, allowing characters break the fourth wall and directly communicate with the audience can be a powerful tool to solidify the story’s themes while letting the viewer further empathize with the characters, whether they’d like to (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) or not (“Funny Games”). It can also be a dangerous choice, and perhaps should only be used by seasoned professionals, since in the wrong hands it can snap you out of the flow of the piece by reminding them that they are indeed participating in fiction.

Vimeo user Jacob T. Swinney put together a tribute to characters across the history of film breaking the fourth wall in order to bridge the cognitive gap between them and the audience. Even though Swinney doesn’t use this writer’s favorite fourth wall break—Giulietta Masina humbly smiling and nodding at the audience, as if thanking them for witnessing her meager story, right before the image fades out of Fellini’s underrated masterpiece “Nights of...