In film and theatre, the fourth wall is the imaginary, illusory invisible plane through which the film viewer or audience is thought to look through toward the action. In film, the fourth wall is generally where the camera is.

 

Most of the time, an audience simply passively accepts the concept of the fourth wall. They sit in their seats imagining that they are voyeurs into a believable reality and they suspend disbelief for the 2 hours during which they watch the screen (or stage). The separation of the audience from the action of the film by this invisible wall actually helps maintain this conception of the film as “real.” On the other hand, many film makers have successfully (and unsuccessfully) experimented with breaking the fourth wall.

 

The fourth wall that separates the audience from the characters is 'broken through' when the barrier between the fictional world of the film's story and the "real world" of the audience is shattered - when an actor speaks directly to the viewers by making an aside.

 

Some examples of films that use this technique are Blazing Saddles (1974), Annie Hall (1977), and High Fidelity (2000). On television, The Gary Shandling Show and Malcolm in the Middle use this technique in which a character is aware of both the reality of his story and the existence of the audience watching.

 

Sometimes the breaking of the fourth wall occurs accidentally, due to technical gliches, such as lens flare, shaking of the camera, or substances such as water or blood across the lens of the camera. Other times, “mistakes” like these are intentional, and used for effect such as the blood across the camera lens in the opening battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan.

 

All in all, breaking the fourth wall is an interesting device to experiment with, but too much of a character talking directly into the camera can be annoying and distracting from the film.