Self-reflexivity means "consciousness turning back on itself," and reflexive cinema is about films which call attention to themselves as cinematic constructs (Siska, 285).  Reflexivity points to its own mask and invites the public to examine its design and texture. Reflexive works break with art as enchantment and call attention to their own factitiousness as textual constructs" (Stam, 1).

It is easy to underestimate the pervasiveness of reflexivity in films, for it can be found in such wide-ranging works as the modernist efforts of Jean-Luc Godard, the parodic comedies of Mel Brooks, the homages of Brian De Palma and on television in the 80's series Moonlighting.

While few mainstream movies completely embrace reflexivity, many do incorporate some anti-illusionistic techniques. Thus, not all the movies below are considered wholly reflexive; rather, they integrate some reflexive elements within a framework of traditional storytelling.

Filmic reflexivity and inherent quality are independent; that is, both marginal efforts and cinematic masterpieces (as well as everything in-between) can manifest reflexive techniques. The list below, for example, ranges from Bachelor Party to Amarcord.

  Film within a film:  Shakespeare's plays thrive on the "diabolical struggle between realistic imitation and self-conscious artifice." Likewise, a film "foregrounds its own artifice through" the implementation of a film-within-a-film (Stam,  3). A good example is in Legal Eagles, where defense attorney Robert Redford watches Singin' in the Rain on television. In addition to depicting a film within a film, Singin' in the Rain is itself a reflexive musical comedy. Further, Redford doesn't passively watch the screen; he mimics Gene Kelly's character dancing in the rain. This is reflexive on a third level because Redford's singing and dancing imitation is a jolt to the viewer who expects to view his usual screen persona as an earnest, handsome leading man. The audience may well see Robert Redford, not his filmic character, cavorting on the screen, which is a distancing technique, the latter being a distancing often found in reflexivity. Other examples are below:

  Processes of artistic reproduction on screen: "Film can reflect upon the filmic and cinematic fact," and one way is to remind us of "the mechanics of its transmission" (Fredericksen,  307). "Exposition of the mechanics of production is common to ... reflexive cinema" (Siska,  286). Cameras and film apparatus, for example, are visible on the screen.

  Stylized acting and gestures: Master of reflexive theatre Bertold Brecht, mentioned above, believed a work should actively involve the audience. He substituted "distanced reflection" for emotional involvement.  Brecht viewed the films of Chaplin and Keaton as "focusing on external actions." That is, their films did not probe the psychological motivations underlying their characters' behavior; rather, they provided us with "set characters performing with stylized gestures ..." (Stam,  4, 6, 7). Chaplin's Little Tramp, for example, is an instantly recognizable character to moviegoers because he looks and acts the same whenever he appears on the screen: twirling a cane; sporting a black moustache; wearing a derby and old baggy clothes; and eyeing pretty girls.

  Editing processes calling attention to themselves: split screen, slow motion, freeze frame, pronounced wipe, etc.

   Use of animation: Reflexive techniques of seminal Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov included "the intrusion of animation" (Stam,  82).

The Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters
Gene Kelly's mouse dance partner in Anchors Away
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Casper
Kill Bill: Vol. I
Space Jam
Run Lola Run
Natural Born Killers
And Now for Something Completely Different
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
One Crazy Summer

   Analogy between lens/eye, shutter/eyelid: Another of Vertov's "visible puns" (Stam, 82).

   Poking fun at on-screen sex: One reflexive technique, à la Godard, is the "sabotage of eroticism." Godard "defuses" and "subverts" sex scenes, playing up their inherent comic absurdity (Stam, 56).

  Direct address to camera: One anti-mimetic device is the "direct address by a character to the audience ... or `face-on' shots ... Acknowledging the audience points to the film as film, produces irony and weakens the `impression of reality'" (Fredericksen, 306, 312).

Albert Finney in Tom Jones
Cleavon Little and Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles
Any Marx Bros. movie (usually Groucho engages us)
Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Sam Elliott at end of The Big Lebowski
Tilda Swinton in Orlando
Woody Allen in Annie Hall
John Cusack in High Fidelity
Director Miles Berkowitz in his film 20 Dates
John Belushi in Animal House

  Appearance of filmmaker in film, especially in role of creative or artistic capacity: Reflexivity may appear with "the artist as creator reflecting upon himself ... in films about the moviemaker" (Siska, 285-6). Authors appear either actually or figuratively, through delegates ("authorial surrogates") (Stam, 127). For example, Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel is François Truffaut's alter ego in the series of films depicting the boy's growth to manhood (as well as in Day for Night), and Marcello Mastroianni appears on screen as Federico Fellini's stand-in in several of il Maestro’s films.

Truffaut in The Wild Child, Day for Night
Woody Allen in Manhattan, Deconstructing Harry, Manhattan Murder Mystery
Albert Brooks in Modern Romance, Defending Your Life, Mother, The Muse
Mel Brooks in High Anxiety, Silent Movie, Space Balls, History of the World Part I
Spike Lee in She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever
John Sayles in The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Brother from Another Planet, etc 
Barbara Streisand in Yentl, The Prince of Tides, The Mirror Has Two Faces
Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, After Hours, The Age of Innocence
Maurizio Nichetti in The Icicle Thief
Kevin Smith in Clerks, Mall Rats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn

  Use of parody: "Reflexiveness is a strategy long known in film, found in early comedies that parody `serious' dramatic film hits, and in the subgenre of comic and dramatic films that use film-making as their ambiance or as the object of their fun and scrutiny" (Fredericksen, 302).

Various screen versions of Frankenstein parodied in Young Frankenstein
David Lynch's Wild at Heart contains numerous humorous references to The Wizard of Oz
Send-ups of the gangster genre show up in Johnny Dangerously and Prizzi's Honor
Westerns, musicals and The Blue Angel are spoofed in Blazing Saddles
70's Blaxploitation films are parodied in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
Soapdish makes fun of daytime soap operas
Star Wars is made fun of in Space Balls
Used People and American Pie toy with The Graduate
Spy movies are sent up in Top Secret!
Fifties-era sci-fi is spoofed in Mars Attacks! and Matinee
Rocky is satirized in Ruthless People
Star Trek is spoofed in Galaxy Quest
In Me, Myself and Irene, Jim Carrey is a mild-mannered cop whose alter ego has Dirty Harry's voice 
Scream 3 features a film about the murders in Scream 1 and 2
Scary Movie not only makes fun of horror films, but it also lampoons The Matrix, Amistad, Beetlejuice, Schindler's List, The Sixth Sense, Titanic, and others

   Homage: One way films focus on filmmaking is by employing "intertextual quotes." This involves two separate texts, or films, with one transforming, modifying, elaborating or extending the other (Stam, 25, 265). Sequels (Jewel of the Nile, follow-up to Romancing the Stone; The Godfather, Parts II and III); remakes (Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait, first made as Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Eddie Murphy as The Nutty Professor, first done by Jerry Lewis), and adaptations from other media (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Joshua Then and Now, both adapted for the screen from novels by Mordecai Richler) all qualify. A prime example is Clerks, in which two characters have an unforgettable discussion about the first three Star Wars films. Another Kevin Smith movie, Dogma, also refers to many other films, including Krush Groove, The Piano, The Ten Commandments, E.T., Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, various John Hughes’ films, and of course, Star Wars. Other such self-reflexive examples can be found below:

One True Thing, Wild at Heart (The Wizard of Oz)
Play It Again, Sam (Bogart films)
Love and Death (The Battleship Potemkin)
What's Up, Doc? (classic screwball comedies)
Sleepless in Seattle (An Affair to Remember)
High Anxiety (North by Northwest)
Body Double (Vertigo)
The Untouchables (Potemkin)
The Freshman (The Godfather, Part I)
The Limey incorporates scenes from Poor Cow, made 20 years earlier
Mickey Blue Eyes (various gangster films)
Boiler Room (characters watching Wall Street and mouthing dialogue verbatim)

  Disjuncton of aural/image scale: Similar to the distortion of the time/space continuum, this is in contrast with mimetic films which reconstitute "a recognizable auditory world, lending depth to visual image" (Stam, 262).

Ben walking Mrs. Robinson to her front door in The Graduate
The ferry boat scene in Funny Girl

Sound "derealizing" image: In a reflexive work, sound, including music, often counterpoints the image instead of "underlining" it (Stam, 261).

Musical finale of Life of Brian
Singin' in the Rain during violent scene in A Clockwork Orange
Music at end of Dr. Strangelove
Western tune in The Big Lebowski, an urban tale
Warner Bros. cartoon theme, Cole Porter tune, Count Basie in Blazing Saddles
Pop tunes, eg, Like a Virgin and Smells Like Teen Spirit in Moulin Rouge