For those of you who watched The Blair Witch Project on the big screen and ended up tossing your Junior Mints--not because you were horrified but rather due to the motion sickness from trying to follow the shaky handcam--you've got cinéma vérité to thank. Beginning in the mid-1950s, an influential band of disparate renegade filmmakers in Canada, France, England and the United States, aided by rapidly advancing technology (some of which they created themselves) that made cameras easier to tote and allowed for synchronous sound recording, hit the road, abandoning studio backlots and saying Goodbye Dolly to tracking shots and cranes, in hopes of finding what photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson had dubbed in his 1952 book of the same name, The Decisive Moment. In this absorbing chronicle and loving homage, director Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media [VL-3/94]) embarks on a transcontinental journey to interview the early masters of the cinéma vérité universe: Bob Drew (Primary, 1960, on the JFK presidential campaign), Wolf Koenig (Lonely Boy, 1961, on teen idol Paul Anka), D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back, 1966, capturing Bob Dylan), Al Maysles (Salesmen, 1959, on door-to-door Bible salesmen), and Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies, 1967, on the mistreatment of mental patients), as well as more recent filmmakers such as Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A., 1976) and Jennifer Fox (An American Love Story, 1999). After years of documentaries that were little more than dull lectures (humorous excerpts from a film on how to use an extension ladder are intercut throughout here), the freedom that filmmakers found with cinéma vérité (nicely encapsulated in the liberating cry, "screw the tripod") breathed new life into non-fiction film. In fact, now more than ever, the influence (good and bad) of these revolutionary filmmakers of the '50s and '60s can be seen in all forms of visual media, from feature films like The Blair Witch Project to music videos and reality-based TV shows such as Survivor. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, whose members played a "decisive moment" role themselves in the history of the movement, this will be a big hit with film buffs, but is also entertaining enough to appeal to general documentary fans as well. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)
Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment
(1999) 103 min. $295. National Film Board of Canada. PPR. Color cover. Closed captioned. Vol. 15, Issue 5
Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment
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