Playback / Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off · 1986
Opening Sequence
Ferris fakes an illness, wins the argument, and then turns to camera and lets us in on it — the audience becomes an accomplice.
Watch for
- The moment he addresses the camera directly, and how that changes your relationship with him.
- How the opening sequence establishes character, want and obstacle in a few minutes.
- The spoken language he uses with his parents versus the language he uses with us.
A worked reading · COCA
CContention
Hughes breaks the fourth wall in the opening so the audience is recruited as Ferris's co-conspirator rather than his judge.
OObservation
After performing illness for his parents, Ferris drops the act, looks down the lens and explains the con directly to the viewer.
CConnotation
Direct address is normally reserved for narrators and comedians; used by a teenager mid-lie it codes charm and control, and flatters the audience with inside knowledge.
AAudience
We are invited to enjoy the deception instead of disapproving of it — we want him to get away with it.
Your turn
- How does direct address change the way you judge his behaviour?
- What jobs does an opening sequence have to do, and which does this one do?
- How does his language change depending on who he is talking to?
For teachers
Sits perfectly beside the existing "Anyone? Anyone?" clip for a two-scene study of the same film. Excellent for openings, character construction and register.
