Mike's point about distinguishing between the film misrepresenting and a character telling lies, being duped, being asleep etc, is absolutely the way to go with this. We have to stick with a narrow definition if it's to mean anything. One thing Mike said reminded me of Colin McCabe's distinction between the image track and the soundtrack in Klute. He prioritized the image track, a symptom of the 70s obsession with the gaze, I've no doubt! Don't quite know how relevant that is!
A related cycle, it seems to me, are those films that play on the cinema's power to represent lies. The Sting springs to mind as a film that makes an issue out of that broad sense in which all cinema is unreliable narration. Off the track, perhaps, but it goes to show what a thought-provoking area this is!
Has anyone mentioned The Wizard of Oz? Come to think of it, do we actually see Dottie fall asleep?
Richard
