Mise en Abyme in the Cinema of the Silent Era

Abstract

The article is devoted to the trend of making films about film production which is largely based on the audience's interest. This is chiefly due to the possibility of cinematic immersion in the mysteries of the behind-the-screen processes, the life and work of the film crew. The unknown world on the other side of the screen attracts not only film audiences, but also film historians, providing research material for the study of sociocultural dynamics, both in the general theoretical aspect and in terms of specific documented biographies of cinema figures.

The author argues that mise en abyme was extensively used in cinema as early as the 1920s, making it possible to share the filmmakers’ own attitude to their trade. The provided examples prove that the range of approaches was quite broad. A satirical view was aimed at both prerevolutionary cinema and, accordingly, at modern traditionalists; the innovators of the Soviet montage school were also ridiculed, and, naturally, one could encounter criticism of bourgeois film industry.