Pirandello in Modern Film
How Movie Characters Drive and Exceed Their Story
Many iconic characters seem to take on a life of their own — and according to Luigi Pirandello, they do. In 1921, the Italian playwright shocked the local theatre scene with Six Characters in Search of An Author, a highly “meta” play in which wayward characters urge a director to finish their story.
The absurdist production didn’t quite break the fourth wall as the actors never spoke to the audience. However, it broke an inner wall. The play-within-a-play questioned our relationship to characters and our obligation to hear / enable their stories. Initially, audiences jeered at the concept, screaming “Manicomio!” (“Madhouse!”) with a fury that could only be rivaled by Charlton Heston 47 years later.
Today, though, we’ve come to embrace the lives of characters. They are no longer figments of the author’s imagination. Modern films explore characters as living beings, allowing them autonomy and purpose that goes beyond the script.
In addition to the metatextual characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and its appropriate metaverse), we’ve also seen some clever films play with the concept of characters as human.
