Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment (2000)

This is a documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Wintonick

Writer:

Kirwan Cox (narration written by)

Stars:

Jean-Pierre Beauviala, Michel Brault, Gillian Caldwell

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Pierre Beauviala
Michel Brault
Gillian Caldwell
Robin Cowie
Robert Drew
Jennifer Fox
William Greaves
Gregg Hale
Wolf Koenig
Roman Kroitor
Barbara Kopple
Richard Leacock
Doug Leiterman	...	(as Douglas Leiterman)
Terence Macartney-Filgate	...	(as Terry Macartney-Filgate)
Albert Maysles

Storyline

This is a documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are portrayed and/or interviewed: Leacock, Wiseman, Maysles, Pennebaker, Reisz and others.

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Plot Keywords:

direct cinema | filmmaker | film history | drama filmmaking | retrospective | 

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Taglines:

The Revolution That Changed Filmmaking. Forever.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

National Film Board (Canada)

Country:

Canada

Language:

French English

Release Date:

9 June 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cinema verite

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

193 min 105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Primary (1960)

User Reviews

flawed but interesting talking heads

This movie is full of terrific interviews with important documentary directors and some fascinating clips from their films, but it's rather poorly constructed. First off, it implies that previous to the cinema verite movement documentaries were pretty much nothing more than civil defense training shorts. There's no attempt to give an idea of what good documentaries were like in the 40s, so while we are told there was a film revolution we don't see what came before. The film loves to trot out little bits of really bad old documentaries and thinks it's cute doing so, but it's really just distracting and unnecessary.

In the last part the film loses structure as it dips into things like shaky camera TV series and MTV videos. Yes, cinema verite influenced those things, but it was also influencing the work of people like Richard Lester back in the 1960s, so why act like this is a new thing?

On the other hand, the people interviewed are thoughtful and intelligent and if your a film buff you'll want to see what they have to say. Here the director seems to do a good job, as one hears telling comments about key scenes. The only interview handled poorly is with Wiseman; they show almost none of his footage and chop up his interview in what I suppose they think is a funny fashion. Perhaps they were uncomfortable with his attitude; he spends a lot of time questioning the whole "verite" concept. Seems like a very smart, thoughtful guy; I wish they'd let him speak.

Worth watching, but could have been much better.