Date Thesis Awarded
5-2021
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Film Studies
Advisor
Richard Lowry
Committee Members
Arthur Knight
Robin Ellis
Abstract
Filmmakers have regularly engaged the tension between fact and fiction in representing both the past and the present in their works. Attempting to better understand how the film form functions, this honors thesis examines three self-reflexive works (Opening Night (1988) by John Cassavetes, F for Fake (1973) by Orson Welles, and The Beaches of Agnès (2008) by Agnès Varda) that can be understood as “meta-films.” In these films, the auteurs construct their presence by including themselves on screen, but also by building a diegetic discourse around the issues that concern them, which include aging, the idea of “the end,” and film’s abilities (and failures) in creating a space where these issues are best represented. In establishing a theoretical frame that engages questions of memory, theater, photography, film, to name a few, this thesis draws especially on the works of Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, and Jane Gallop, to complement its own analysis of the selected films. The thesis attempts to show how each of the creators eventually presents film as the solution to their problems (and as the best medium for self-expression and remembrance) despite explicitly acknowledging its limitations within their works, and how the auteurs’ use of doubles might tell us about them as individuals.
Recommended Citation
Sun, Viola, "Reality, Remembrance, and Self-Expression in the Language of Meta-Cinema" (2021). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1691.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1691
