The feature story of the December 2020 issue of American Cinematographer focuses on documentaries and nonfiction filmmaking has finally convinced me to dive deep into learning more about documentary styles and Its mission for telling the truth.
One cannot talk about documentary without mentioning Chronicle of a Summer 1961 for its innovation and the legacy it left on the filmmaking world. It’s late 50’s in France and new technology like 16mm handheld camera has enabled and opened up filmmakers’ capabilities to capture footage more intimate and less footprint than previously with a big camera, this results in how filmmaker see things in a new life, just like what sound did in the musical genre and ‘talkie revolution’ in the late ’20s. Born with this technology is ‘cinema verité’ French for “Cinema of truth”
The idea of seeking the truth as any good documentary should was something entirely different here in Chronicle of a Summer. There’s a great deal of filmmakers’ involvement and often will participate in them as well, unlike its sibling movement in the United State “Direct Cinema” where you aim to be fly on the wall and let the camera tell its truth by observing as objectively as possible. Cinema Verité often times will provoke the subject for action hoping that once the interviewee is in the spotlight their personalities and ego will ascent for the world to see, resulting in a different kind of truth.
“The presence of the camera is a kind of passport that opens all doors and makes every kind of scandal possible. The camera deforms, but not from the moment that it becomes an accomplice. At that point it has the possibility of doing something I couldn’t do if the camera wasn’t there: it becomes a kind of psychoanalytic stimulant, which lets people do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.”
Right from the start, we see an example of that with the interviewer as an active contributor asking “are you happy?” to random French people on the street. As the story progress, we are taken along their journey to interview and discuss about French society and working-class happiness, participants range from factory worker to African student to young women to Italian immigrant.
Each participant responds and reacts differently to the question asked. Knowing the camera was nearby and rolling this one husband would spout his feelings about men and their relationship with profession “I think that the tragedy of our times is that you’re less and less able to choose your work” he expresses with a slightly bitter undertone. Sitting alongside him around the dinner table is his wife who twirls her thumb around with a concerned face. One heavy single question from the interviewer sparks fireworks of responses. The interviewer and the camera evoke action. What did his answer tell us about his character and personality? What did his answer tell us about their husband-and-wife power status basing on her body language and reaction?
Another great example and more apparent display of cinema verité techniques are exhibits a decade later in the United State with Gray Gardens 1975 where subjects’ personalities and the verité style ignite the participants' deep hidden egos, regrets, and truth.
The documentary follows two reclusive mother and daughter who lived in a run-down mansion in New York. They would often have a burst of argument while telling the audience (camera) explicitly about their lavish stories earlier in their years with a hint of sadness and regrets. These stories and drama would spew out left to right as the camera follow them intently nearby. The man behind the camera and the camera itself acts as an initiator or a third party that would bear those stories out.
The influence of Cinema Verité is still prevalent in a lot of media we consume today. With a lot of TV shows like “The Office 2005” where gorilla handheld style shot is implemented in the show’s style DNA.
What I found most interesting and intriguing about Cinema Verité documentary style is its bravery for accepting that there is no such thing as absolute truth or real objectivity no matter how much the filmmaker tried to avoid it - There’s involvement in where the camera is placed, the duration of shot or how the film is edited. Rather Cinema Verité seeks to find an alternative truth, their personalities and hidden ego when they see the rolling camera.
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