Watch Atmosphere (1976) Official Trailer

In Atmosphere the camera pans back and forth over a body of water at a varying tempo and most people assume that a camera operator is in charge. The final image of the film carries a great deal of significance. It opens up a gap between the film’s appearance and its reality; what it appears to be – what it imitates – is not an object or scene from everyday life, but a film. Atmosphere is not just an imitation, but an imitation of an imitation, a metafilm that plays with the viewers’ expectations about cinematic form. —R. Bruce Elder, Image and Identity