Cinéma vérité
- This article is about filmmaking. Cinéma Vérité is also an album by Dramarama.
Cinéma vérité is a style of filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques that originated in documentary filmmaking, with the storytelling elements typical of a scripted film. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics. The name is French and means, roughly, "cinema of truth".
Cinéma vérité aims for an extreme naturalism, using non-professional actors, nonintrusive filming techniques, hand-held camera, genuine locations rather than sound stages, and naturalistic sound without substantial post-production mixing or voiceovers.
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.
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.
The movement was fueled as much by technological as artistic developments. During World War II, cameras had become small enough to be portable and unobtrusive. Even more important, cameras were now quiet so that natural sound could be recorded at the same time as filming.
The movement began in earnest in France and Quebec 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 filmakers 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 movements. Direct Cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence. 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 filmaker and camera was seen by most cinema vérité filmakers as the best way to reveal the truth in cinema. The filmaker was then seen by these filmakers as catalyst of a situation.
This is the case for filmakers like Pierre Perrault who sets situations up, asking for example old people to fish whale, and who then films that Pour la suite du monde. The result is not a documentary about whale fishing, it is about mermory and lineage. In this sense Cinéma Vérité is also concerned with anthopological cinema, and with the social and political implications of what was captured on film. How you film, what you film, what you do with what you film, how you show what you filmed, all were very important for filmakers of the time. They sparked very ethical discussions.
In all cases, the ethical and esthetical analysis of documentary form of the 50's and 60's has to be linked with a critical look at post war propaganda analysis. The best way to discribe 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, anthropologiqcal and political aspects of reality.
As Edgar Morin wrote in an introduction to a event held on cinéma vérité at Pompidou: "There are two ways to conceve of The cinema of the Real : the first is to pretend that you can give reality to see ; the second is to pose the problem of reality. In the same way, the were two ways to conceive cinéma vérité. The first was to pretend that you brought thuth, the second was to pose the problem of truth."
" 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."
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.
Filmmakers associated with cinéma vérité, free cinema or Direct Cinema
- John Cassavetes
- Richard Leacock
- Michel Brault and Gilles Groulx (Les Raquetteurs, 1958)
- Robert Drew
- Jean Rouch
- D.A. Pennebaker
- The Maysles Brothers (Albert and David Maysles)
- Frederick Wiseman
- Barbara Kopple
- Scott Shaw
Select cinéma vérité films
- Moi Un Noir (1957)
- Les Raquetteurs (1958)
- Primary (1960)
- Chronique d'un été (1961)
- Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
- The Battle of Algiers (1965)
- Dont Look Back (1967)
- High School (1969)
- Salesman (1969)
- Hospital (1970)
- Cocksucker Blues (1972)
- C'était un rendez-vous (1976)
- West 47th Street (2003)
- À Hauteur d'homme (2003)
The techniques (if not always the spirit) of cinéma vérite can also be seen in such films as The Blair Witch Project and Fucking Åmål, as well as mockumentaries such as A Hard Day's Night and This Is Spinal Tap.
Select cinéma vérité-style television shows