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 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 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 and his own 1961 collaboration with Jean Rouch, Chronicle of a Summer.

Filmmakers associated with the style

Pioneers

Sources:
The following are films that are fictional or semi-fictional which use cinéma vérité film-making techniques:
  • The Phenix City Story
  • Cléo from 5 to 7
  • A Child is Waiting
  • David Holzman's Diary
  • Faces
  • Medium Cool
  • Multiple Maniacs
  • Wanda
  • Bush Mama
  • This Is Spinal Tap
  • Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
  • Bad Movie
  • Slam
  • Thirteen
  • Take Out
  • Daddy Longlegs
  • Certified Copy
  • Tangerine
  • American Honey
  • The Florida Project
  • ''Gasoline Rainbow''

    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.