Actor David Mitchell reflects on “reality” in the movies:
Star Wars, perhaps the most successful science-fiction film ever made, breaks dozens of laws of physics but has been enjoyed by millions. Its more recent prequels break no more and are, to those of us who grew up with the originals, heartbreakingly worse.
It turns out that crews don’t much care about reality… that is, until they find themselves filming a scene about the movie business:
They’ll show brain operations done with melon ballers, Napoleon wearing the full dress uniform of a Brazilian police inspector with a chestful of Luftwaffe medals, and Judge John Deed before they’ll allow the fictional on-camera cameraman not to call “Mark it” at the appropriate time.