Cinéma vérité

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This article is about filmmaking. Cinéma Vérité is also an album by Dramarama. For the production company, see Cinema Verity.

Cinéma-vérité is a style of filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques that originated in documentary filmmaking, with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics. The name is French and means, roughly, "cinema of truth".

As Bill Nichols points out, the reality effect of a new mode of documentary representation tends to fade away when "the conventional nature of this mode of representation becomes increasingly apparent". In other words, new modes initially appear to be true, unvarnished "reality" on the screen, but as time goes by that mode's conventions become more and more obvious. Such is certainly the case with cinéma-vérité whose conventions can now appear quite mannered and open for critique.

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[edit] History

The term originates in the translation of Dziga Vertov's Kino-Pravda (Russian for "cinema of truth"), a documentary series of the 1920s. While Vertov's announced intention in coining the word was to use film as a means of getting at "hidden" truth, largely through juxtapositions of images, the French term refers more to a technique influenced by Vertov than to his specific intentions.

During World War II, cameras had become small enough to be portable and unobtrusive. Also important was that cameras were now quiet so that natural sound could be recorded at the same time as filming. But even more important was the development of portable sound recording devices especially the Nagra.

The technique began in earnest in France and Quebec (particularly at the National Film Board of Canada) in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s. The aesthetic of cinéma-vérité was essentially the same as that of the mid-1950s "free cinema" in the UK and "Direct Cinema" in the US. Some filmmakers in France and Québec found the term cinema vérité to be pretentious, and called it "cinéma direct" instead.

There are however subtle yet important differences between these terms. Direct Cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence. This is essentially what is now called a "fly on the wall" documentary. Many therefore see a paradox created by drawing attention away from the reality of the camera and simultaneously declaring the discovery of a cinematic truth. Others argue that the obvious presence of the filmmaker and camera was seen by most cinema vérité filmmakers as the best way to reveal the truth in cinema. The filmmaker was then seen by these filmmakers as catalyst of a situation.

This is the case for filmmakers like Pierre Perrault who sets situations up, and who then films that, for example in Pour la suite du Monde (also known as The Moontrap) where he asked old people to fish whale. The result is not a documentary about whale fishing, it is about memory and lineage. In this sense cinéma-vérité is also concerned with anthropological cinema, and with the social and political implications of what was 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. ( On "lens ethic" see for example Michel Brault below)

In all cases, the ethical and aesthetic analysis of documentary form of the 1950s and '60s has to be linked with a critical look at post war propaganda analysis. The best way to describe this type of cinema is probably to say that it is concerned with notions of truth, and reality, in film. To say that it is an interrogative and highly ethical minded film form, looking mainly at the social, anthropological and political aspects of reality.

As Edgar Morin wrote in an introduction to an event held on cinéma-vérité at Pompidou: "There are two ways to conceive of the cinema of the Real: the first is to pretend that you can present reality to be seen; the second is to pose the problem of reality. In the same way, there were two ways to conceive cinéma-vérité. The first was to pretend that you brought truth. The second was to pose the problem of truth." [1]

Feminist documentary films of the 1970s often used cinéma-vérité techniques but very soon this sort of 'realism' was criticized for its deceptive pseudo-natural construction of reality. In 1979 Michelle Citron released Daughter Rite, a feminist pseudo-documentary which deconstructs the conventions of cinéma-vérité.

In principle, the film movement Dogme 95 features similar tenets, but in practice most Dogme 95 films show far more indications of the scripting and direction than is typical for cinéma-vérité.

[edit] Filmmakers associated with cinéma-vérité, free cinema or Direct Cinema

[edit] Select cinéma-vérité films

The techniques (if not always the spirit) of cinéma vérite can also be seen in fiction films such as The Battle of Algiers, The Blair Witch Project and Show Me Love, as well as mockumentaries such as A Hard Day's Night, David Holzman's Diary and This Is Spinal Tap.

[edit] Short films

[edit] Select cinéma-vérité-style television shows

The techniques of cinéma-vérité may be observed in fiction programs such as The Office, Friday Night Lights, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Battlestar Galactica, The Thick Of It and Trailer Park Boys. Documentary series are less common, but include:

[edit] Quotes

“ Today, we see the influence of vérité in everything from music videos to feature films to TV news. Yet these things are not vérité films. The key difference, I think, is that today's contemporary image industry is almost wholly devoid of thoughtful content; it is pure image (even, or maybe especially, the news) without the sense of social self and social responsibility that vérité filmmakers brought to their work.

I am proud that filmmakers in Quebec and the rest of Canada and institutions like the National Film Board of Canada were able to give voice and vision to the vérité movement. Perhaps the next wave of documentarians and their audiences can re-visit some of the lessons learned from cinéma-vérité, and adapt them to the challenges of the future.

—Filmmaker Peter Wintonick, about his film Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

 ”

Yes, that’s enough. We have hit enough at it, and it’s actually cinema verité, the answer of the ’60s, and that’s OK. Yes, we have buried it for good I hope.

--Werner Herzog [3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Il y a deux façons de concevoir le cinéma du réel : la première est de prétendre donner à voir le réel; la seconde est de se poser le problème du réel. De même, il y avait deux façons de concevoir le cinéma-vérité. La première était de prétendre apporter la vérité. La seconde était de se poser le problème de la vérité."
  2. ^ John Cassavetes in All Movie Guide, accessed online on the New York Times website 23 October 2006.
  3. ^ Richard Leacock in All Movie Guide, accessed online on the New York Times website 23 October 2006.
  4. ^ a b c Plot description of Cinema Verite: Defining The Moment, , accessed online on the New York Times website 23 October 2006.
  5. ^ Daniel Asa Rose, Frederick Wiseman Takes His Camera to the Races, The New York Times, June 1, 1986. Accessed online 23 October 2006.
  6. ^ http://fr.youtube.com/results?search_query=24+idées+seconde&search_type=
  7. ^ Apple - Trailers - Billy the Kid - Trailer

[edit] External links