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 the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting- edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © David Roche, 2022 Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun—Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in Garamond MT Pro by Cheshire Typesetting Ltd, Cuddington, Cheshire, 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