Cinéma vérité

Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind reality.
It is sometimes called observational cinema, if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator's voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences between terms expressing similar concepts. Direct cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence: operating within what Bill Nichols, an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth.

History

Cinéma vérité can involve stylized set-ups and interaction between the filmmaker and the subject, even to the point of provocation. Some argue that the obvious presence of the filmmaker and camera was seen by most cinéma vérité filmmakers as the best way to reveal the truth. The camera is always acknowledged, for it performs the act of filming real objects, people, and events in a confrontational way. The filmmaker's intention was to represent the truth as objectively as possible, freeing the viewer from deceptions in how those aspects of life were formerly presented to them. From this perspective, the filmmaker should be the catalyst of a situation. Even among filmmakers whose works are described by these terms, there is little consensus on their meanings.

Pierre Perrault sets situations up and then films them, for example in '' Pour la suite du monde'' (1963) where he asked old people to fish for whale. The result is not a documentary about whale fishing; it is about memory and lineage. In this sense cinéma vérité is concerned with anthropological cinema, and with the social and political implications of what is captured on film. How a filmmaker shoots a film, what is being filmed, what to do with what was filmed, and how that film will be presented to an audience, all were very important for filmmakers of the time.

In all cases, the ethical and aesthetic analysis of documentary form (see docufiction) of the 1950s and 1960s has to be linked with a critical look at post-war propaganda analysis. This type of cinema is concerned with notions of truth and reality in film. Feminist documentary films of the 1970s often used cinéma-vérité techniques. This sort of "realism" was criticized for its deceptive pseudo-natural construction of reality.

Edgar Morin coined the term around the time of such essential films as 1960's ''Primary''Richard Brody
"The Godfather of Cinéma Vérité"
''The New Yorker'', July 31, 2014. and his own 1961 collaboration with Jean Rouch, '' Chronicle of a Summer''.

Filmmakers associated with the style

Pioneers

:
* Robert Drew"Cinema Verite: The Movement of Truth"
''Independent Lens'', PBS.org.
* Haskell Wexler
* Richard Leacock
* D. A. Pennebaker
* Jean Rouch

Others

Sources:
* William Greaves
* Jim McBride
* Lindsay Anderson
* Sean Baker
* Tony Richardson
* Karel Reisz
* Agnes VardaCinema Verité Shorts - The Criterion Channel
/ref>Film Fourm · 60s VERITÉ
/ref>
* Shirley ClarkeHow ’60s Vérité Transformed American Cinema - Flavorwire
/ref>
* Chris Marker
* Jean-Luc Godard
* Vittorio De Seta
* The Maysles Brothers (Albert and David Maysles)
* Frederick Wiseman
* John Cassavetes
* Barbara KoppleThe Criterion Channel’s January 2023 Lineup, Current, The Criterion Collection
/ref>
* Les BlankCinema Verité - The Criterion Channel
/ref>
*Peter Watkins
* Matthew Heineman

Selected cinéma-vérité films

* '' Daybreak Express'' (1953)
* '' Sea Countrymen'' (1955)
* ''Primary'' (1960)
*'' Chronicle of a Summer'' (1961)
*'' Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment'' (1963)Does Cinéma Vérité Exist? Watch These 2 Movies to Find Out - The New York Times
/ref>
*'' Love Meetings'' ''(1964)''
*''Happy Mother's Day'' (1964)
*'' A Time For Burning'' (1966)
*'' Dont Look Back'' (1967)
*'' Portrait of Jason'' (1967)
* '' Titicut Follies'' (1967)Cinéma Vérité: How to Use the Filmmaking Technique, Backstage
/ref>
*'' Uncle Yanco'' (1967)
*'' The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins'' (1968)
* ''High School'' (1968)
* ''Monterey Pop'' (1968)
* '' Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One'' (1968)
* '' Law and Order'' (1969)
* ''Salesman'' (1969)
*'' Gimme Shelter'' (1970)
*''Hospital'' (1970)
*'' I Am Somebody'' (1970)
*''Woodstock'' (1970)
*'' Christo's Valley Curtain'' (1973)
*'' A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian Liberation Front of Berkeley California'' (1974)
*'' Italianamerican'' (1974)
* ''The Plaint of Steve Kreines as recorded by his younger brother Jeff'' (1974)
*'' A Poem Is a Naked Person'' (1974)
* '' Grey Gardens'' (1975)
*'' Harlan County U.S.A.'' (1976)1960s Cinema Verité documentaries come to the Criterion Channel, Stark Insider
/ref>
*'' Da Real Makoy'' (1977)
*'' Always for Pleasure'' (1978)
*'' Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe'' (1980)
*''The Decline of Western Civilization'' (1981) and the sequel '' The Metal Years'' (1988)
*'' The Atomic Cafe'' (1982)
*''Burden of Dreams'' (1982)
*'' Say Amen, Somebody'' (1982)
*'' Streetwise'' (1984)
*'' Sherman's March '' (1986)
*'' Crack USA: County Under Siege'' (1989)
*'' Paris Is Burning'' (1990)
*''American Dream'' (1991)
*'' The War Room'' (1993)
*'' Hoop Dreams'' (1994)
*'' Tarnation'' (2003)
*''Control Room'' (2004)
*'' Murderball'' (2005)Matthew Heineman: 5 Documentaries That Taught Me Vérité Filmmaking, A.frame
/ref>
*'' How to Survive a Plague'' (2012)
*'' Frame by Frame'' (2015)
*'' Dick Johnson Is Dead'' (2020)
*'' Cow'' (2021)
*'' When We Were Bullies'' (2021)
*'' Jeen-Yuhs'' (2022)

Fictional cinéma vérité–style films

The following are films that are fictional or semi-fictional which use cinéma vérité film-making techniques:
*'' The Phenix City Story'' (1955)
*'' Cléo from 5 to 7'' (1962)
*'' A Child is Waiting'' (1963)
*''David Holzman's Diary'' (1967)
*'' Faces'' (1968)Josh Schasny
"25 New Hollywood Era Films That Projected the Hopes and Fears of the Times"
''Taste of Cinema'', March 4, 2016.
* '' Medium Cool'' (1969)
*'' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970)
*'' Wanda'' (1970)
*'' Bush Mama'' (1979)
*'' Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'' (1986)
*'' Bad Movie'' (1997)
*'' Slam'' (1998)
*'' Thirteen'' (2003)
*'' Take Out'' (2004)
*'' Daddy Longlegs'' (2009)
*'' Certified Copy'' (2010)
*''Tangerine'' (2015)
*'' American Honey'' (2016)
*'' The Florida Project'' (2017)
*'' Gasoline Rainbow'' (2024)

Legacy

Many film directors of the 1960s and later adopted use of handheld camera and other cinéma vérité aspects for their scripted, fiction filmshaving actors improvise to get a more spontaneous quality in their dialogue and action. Influential examples include director John Cassavetes, who broke ground with his 1968 Academy Award-nominated film ''Faces''. The techniques of cinéma vérité can also be seen in fictional films from ''The Blair Witch Project'' to ''Saving Private Ryan''.

Cinéma vérité was also adapted for use in scripted TV programs, such as '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', ''NYPD Blue'', '' The Shield'', both the UK and American versions of ''The Office'', '' Parks & Recreation'' and '' Modern Family''. Documentary series are less common, but '' COPS'' is one famous non-fictional example.

It has also been a subject ripe for parodies and spoofs such as the mockumentary film '' This Is Spinal Tap'' and Emmy Award-nominated TV series '' Documentary Now'' (the latter paying homage to the style of such CV classics as ''Grey Gardens'', ''Salesman'' and ''The War Room'').Hubert Adjei-Kontoh
"Documentary Now! An ode to the funniest spoof on television"
''The Guardian'', February 20, 1019.

See also

*'' Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment''
*''Cinema Verite –'' the 2011 HBO TV movie about the making of PBS's 1973 documentary series '' An American Family''
*Ethnofiction
*Found footage (pseudo-documentary)
* Pilottone
*Sync sound
*16 mm film
*Guerrilla filmmaking

References

External links

REALISM
article by Robert McConnell a
Parlez-vous.com

Cinéma Vérité
at Encyclopædia Britannica
*

''Cinéma Vérité: Defining The Moment''
IMDb.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cinema Verite
Documentary film styles
New Wave in cinema
Film genres
1950s in film
1960s in film
1970s in film
1980s in film
1990s in film
2000s in film
2010s in film
2020s in film
1960s neologisms