Metacinema, alsometa-cinema, is a mode of filmmaking in which the film informs the audience that they are watching a work of fiction. Metacinema often references its own production, working against narrative conventions that aim to maintain the audience'ssuspension of disbelief.[1] Elements of metacinema include scenes where characters discuss the making of the film or where production equipment and facilities are shown. It is analogous tometafiction in literature.
Metacinema can be identified in art cinema of the 1960s such as8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) orThe Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1969), and in the self-reflexive filmmaking of theFrench New Wave in films such asContempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) andDay for Night (François Truffaut, 1973). Other examples includeF for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) andThrough the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994).[2]
Community (2009–2015) is a sitcom which has elements of metacinema, particularly through the character ofAbed Nadir (Danny Pudi) who makes comments about himself and hisfriends being in a sitcom, such as commenting that they are in abottle episode in the bottle episode: "Cooperative Calligraphy" (Series 2: Episode 8), and the episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" (Series 2: Episode 5) consists of Abed making his own metacinema film.
