Ferris’s camera takes in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

September 4, 2020

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience throughout Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). In his 1999 commentary, director John Hughes describes the wordless look as Broderick sits at the keyboard, playing recorded sounds of sickness, as "his best camera take."

“They bought it.”
“Incredible. One of the worst performances of my career and they never doubted it for a second.”
“This is my ninth sick day this semester.”
“But, you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a doctor’s office. That’s worse than school.”
“Life moves pretty fast.”
“If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
“I do have a test today. That wasn’t bullshit.”
“It’s on European socialism. I mean really, what’s the point?”
“It’s not that I condone fascism. Or any ‘ism’ for that matter. ‘Isms’ are not good.”
“If anybody needs a day off, it’s Cameron.”
“I asked for a car, I got a computer. How’s that for being born under a bad sign?”
“Never had one lesson.”
“All this talking has made me lightheaded. I think I oughta lie down.”
“I’m so disappointed in Cameron.”
“Ooh.”
“If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away? Neither would I.”
“A, you can never go too far. B, if I’m going to get busted, it is not going to be by a guy like that.”
“Can you appreciate what it must have been like for Cameron to be in that joint as a baby?”
“4,000 restaurants in the downtown area. I pick the one my father goes to.”
“Here’s where Cameron goes berserk.”
“Then he’ll go to one school and I’ll go to another. Basically that will be it.”
“She won’t respect him, ’cause you can’t respect somebody who kisses your ass. It just doesn’t work.”
“Yep. I said it before and I’ll say it again: life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
“You’re still here?”