The Quest for Authenticity

Paper by Rene Gonzalez-Slizewski. Viewed on DVD.

Ever since the emergence of documentary filmmaking, which can trace its ancestry all the way back to the actualities of the Lumiére brothers, documentary filmmakers have strived toward portraying a realistic image of the physical world to the viewer, with the aim to capture reality, or mere fragments of it, and present it in a manner which resonates with the viewer’s perception of reality. In the quest to achieve an authentic representation of the world, filmmakers have used different methods to extract the truth from their images and subjects, ranging from the romantic and staged depiction of the Inuits in Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922), to the extremely interactive and intrusive approach seen in the films of contemporary filmmaker Michael Moore. Another approach, which is considered to be a benchmark in the history of documentary filmmaking, is the observational approach of Dziga Vertov, exemplified in The Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929). In his film, Vertov strove to seize reality without interfering with it, opposing the notion of staging, by allowing the camera lens to act as an observer, capturing the life unaware in motion and unfolding it to the viewer in an attempt to portray a genuine reality. The remnants of Vertov’s aspiration to capture reality have reverberated through the course of film history, influencing a wide array of films along the way. However, two movements in particular have been strongly influenced by Vertov’s concept of revealing truth, Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité, movements that embody the quest for authenticity, placing the importance of truthful representation at the top of the pyramid. Both movements sought to extract the truth from their subjects, albeit using different approaches, with Cinema Vérité using an interactive approach, which can be seen in Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, 1960), where the filmmakers actively engage with their subjects, and Direct Cinema using a detached observational approach, a method that can be observed in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, 1991). The films belonging to the movements, aimed to observe and unfold genuine feelings and reactions, stringing together an end product that would provide the viewer with a truthful depiction of reality, thus aligning with Vertov’s aspiration to represent truth. In this analysis I seek to discuss the influence The Man With a Movie Camera has had on Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité, by using Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse and Chronicle of a Summer as examples to showcase how their quest to achieve authenticity resonates with the philosophy of Vertov.

In Vertov’s famous manifesto We: Variant of a Manifesto, the passage that reads; “I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it” (Vertov), serves as a strong indicator of his conviction that the camera lens was the optimal tool for representing reality, possessing an observational power second to none, not even the human eye, which could capture and then unfold truth to the viewer. In The Man With a Movie Camera, the cameraman sets out on a journey to discover the regular life of a Soviet city, capturing footage from all corners of society. The filmmaker detaches himself completely from any subjects, merely capturing citizens going about their daily lives, rather than investigating them, thus staying away from any in-depth characterization whatsoever. The exchange between the filmmaker and subjects is therefore diminished, almost non-existent, contrasting the more intimate relationship between filmmaker and subjects seen in earlier documentaries such as Flaherty’s Nanook of the North. The exchange between the audience and subjects is also weakened by the absence of characterization; however, the subjects in the film serve a greater purpose, inhabiting the city and going about their daily lives, the life unaware that the filmmaker is aiming to capture, fortifying the authentic depiction of the city by allowing for reality to be portrayed, thus making their presence vital to the filmmaker’s aim. Even the cameraman is treated as a regular inhabitant, going about his daily endeavors to capture footage. We see him exiting what is presumably his home and entering a car with his camera, ready to begin his search for footage, and throughout the film we catch glimpses of him exploring the city with his camera. By separating the cameraman from the footage, allowing for him to be observed as well, the viewer is made aware of the filming process, making it a part of the reality that is revealed. The cameraman unites with the other observed subjects, bonding the labor of filmmaking with all the other workers seen in the film, such as the factory workers and the coal miners, portraying him as any other regular cogwheel in the immense Soviet machinery. By detaching the cinematographer, incorporating him in the concept of life unaware, the observational nature of the film is fortified, together with the authenticity of the footage, giving the impression that there is an omnipotent observer, an all-seeing Kino-eye, which sees all the activities in the city, including the cameraman himself, capturing the true lives of the people in the city, rather than scripted scenarios.

This unobtrusive method, through which Vertov sought to extract truth, is an approach that Direct Cinema derived from its precursor, sharing the aim to portray authenticity by quietly observing from a distance, as a fly-on-the-wall, with the filmmaker distancing himself from the subjects and the events of the film. By allowing the camera to act in an unobtrusive manner, both Vertov and the filmmakers belonging to the Direct Cinema movement, sought to take advantage of the benefits that accompany a non-intrusive approach. By not actively interfering with the lives of the subjects, the risk of untruthful acting is reduced and instead the possibility to capture spontaneous and truthful reactions is augmented. When in the presence of a camera, people tend to get affected by it and the filmmaker runs the risk of capturing a performance rather than a natural behavior. In his book Introduction to Documentary, author Bill Nichols addresses this dilemma by arguing that:

The degree to which people’s behavior and personality change during the making of a film can introduce an element of fiction into the documentary process (the root meaning of fiction is to make or fabricate). Self-consciousness and modifications in behavior can become a form of misrepresentation, or distortion, in one sense, but they also document the ways in which the act of filmmaking alters the reality it sets out to represent. (Nichols, Chapter 1)
Vertov and Direct Cinema aimed to evade this dilemma by catching the subjects in the midst of their own lives and one scene in The Man With a Movie Camera particularly serves as a great indicator of Vertov’s strong preference to observational filming over an intrusive approach, which is scene of the camera on top of a building, overlooking the city, not controlled by anyone and seemingly with a will of its own. The camera observes from above, making a statement that the only true representation is an observational one.

The goal to attain authenticity through detachment is a characteristic that Direct Cinema inherited from the filmmaking of Vertov and it can be witnessed in Bahr and Hickenlooper’s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. The filmmakers separate themselves entirely from the film, never appearing in front of the camera or making their presence known through any other means, such as voice-over narration. Their detachment is augmented further due to the fact that the principal photographer of the film is neither one of them; instead Eleanor Coppola, the wife of the film’s protagonist, Francis Ford Coppola, captured the main footage over a decade before they made their film. The viewer is made aware of her presence, however, through her narration that accompanies the footage and her appearance in the shots, transforming the cinematographer to a subject that is equal to all the other ones found in the film, making her a part of the reality that is portrayed to the viewer. This exposure of the main photographer is similar to the one witnessed in The Man With a Movie Camera, where the cameraman is also subjected to the camera lens, functioning as a device to unshackle the footage from a cameraman or woman, allowing it to stand independently as a representation of truth.

A big differentiating factor between Vertov’s film and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is the emphasis that the latter places on its subjects. As aforementioned, The Man With a Movie Camera emphasizes on the society as a whole, observing the everyday life of the subjects in order to create a realistic depiction of the society that they inhabit. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, however, derives its truths by investigates its subjects thoroughly, throwing the viewer into the midst of the happenings, which in this case is the immense production of the epic motion picture Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979). Although Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse carries traits of other genres apart from Direct Cinema, the shots from the set, where we see Francis Ford Coppola engaging with his crew and actors, truly falls under the category of Direct Cinema and can be likened with the life unaware that Vertov strove to capture in his The Man With a Movie Camera. The scene when Coppola expressively tries to explain the script to his actor Dennis Hopper, with the actor rebelliously questioning him, exemplifies an observation of authenticity. Such is the intensity of their conversation that Coppola and Hopper, busy locking horns with each other, disregard the camera, which allows it to observe their raw and authentic expressions. The segment that introduces actor Marlon Brando to the set also exemplifies an observational approach in the style of Vertov. The interactions between Brando and Coppola are filmed from a distance, with them being unaware that the camera is observing their every move. Since they are unaware of the camera’s presence, their behavior is not altered by it, allowing for their genuine behavior to be captured. One could argue that this affinity with Vertov’s observational method and the overall desire to depict reality infers that The Man With a Movie Camera has influenced the films that fall under the category of Direct Cinema. Bahr’s and Hickenlooper’s film also uses another device in order to represent the truth to the viewer, which is sound, incorporating sound-recordings between Francis Ford Coppola and his wife, recordings of which Coppola was unaware, thus providing the viewer with genuine words from the protagonist, yet again aligning with Vertov’s objective to catch the life unaware.

Cinéma Vérité takes a different approach in its aspiration to unfold the truth, compared to Vertov and Direct Cinema. Instead of observing from a distance, detaching from the subjects, as seen in the two aforementioned films, the filmmaker interacts with the subjects in front of the camera, using it as a magnifying glass to find the truth. Chronicle of a Summer epitomizes the intrusive way to unfold the truth that signifies this movement, with the two filmmakers engaging in conversation with regular people from different ethnic backgrounds. Whereas Vertov and Direct Cinema relied on finding the truth through non- intervention, as a detached observer, the filmmakers of Chronicle of a Summer bring the truth to the fore through engagement and provocation. In his article Cinéma-vérité, writer James C. Lipscomb defines the Cinéma Vérité filmmaker as follows:
The cinema-vérité film-maker is a special kind of film journalist who is trying to record what really happens more truly than a reporter taking notes. He turns the camera on because he thinks something important or beautiful, sad or funny is happening before him and he wants to share that vision with the viewer. (Lipscomb)

This description seemingly fits with the interactive approach of Rouch and Morin, which relies on questioning the subjects and provoking discussion in a journalistic style, bringing the truth forth in the process of exchange between filmmaker and subject. The most apparent example of this can be witnessed in the scenes with the young Italian woman. The filmmaker interacts with her one-on-one, asking her question regarding her current life and happiness, which then ignites a storm of emotions from the subject. The young woman is almost brought to tears in her attempt to express herself, showcasing authentic feelings in front of the camera. The filmmaker’s intrusion and the camera’s presence forces her to unfold and reveal herself truthfully, allowing for the camera to capture it. The efforts to reveal instances of truth that the two filmmakers undertake in Chronicle of a Summer, is only made possible by the presence of the camera. The intrusion relies on it, requires it in order to bring the truth forth, which is described in the following passage from Bill Nichols:

If there is a truth here it is the truth of a form of interaction that would not exist were it not for the camera. In this sense it is the opposite of the observational premise that what we see is what we would have seen had we been there in lieu of the camera. In participatory documentary, what we see is what we can see only when a camera, or filmmaker, is there instead of ourselves. (Nichols, Chapter 6)

This dependence on the camera creates a strong connection to the philosophy of Vertov. The excerpt from Vertov’s manifesto that was presented earlier in the essay, which reads: “I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it”, shows us that the two films are not only related in terms of their aspirations to depict reality truthfully, but also by the conviction that the camera functions as a catalyst in the attainment of authenticity. One can therefore state that The Man With a Movie Camera could be seen as influential to the emergence of Cinéma Vérité, inspiring not only the quest for authenticity, but also the functioning role of the camera in the search for truth.

Although all three films that have been examined can be said to exemplify the quest for truth, they can also be critiqued for conflicting with their aims of authenticity. Vertov’s film can be scrutinized for using staging, with the woman waking up in the morning serving as the most prominent example, whereas Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse can be criticized for using material shot by the protagonist’s wife, thus compromising the authenticity of the footage, while Chronicle of a Summer may suffer critique on the premises that genuine behavior may not be attainable when a camera is present. Even though these arguments do bring up relevant points, they do not strip these films from their aspiration to depict an authentic representation of reality. Vertov’s influence on Cinéma Vérité and Direct Cinema cannot be understated, as examples in the text show, his influence reaching beyond decades, inspiring the emergence of these movements, proving that his quest for authenticity has withstood the test of time.

Works Cited
Lipscomb, James C. “Cinema-verite.” Film Quarterly. 18.2 (1964): 62-63. Print.
Nichols, Bill. “Chapter 1.” Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 2001. 1-19. Print.
Nichols, Bill. “Chapter 6.” Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 2001. 99-138. Print.
Vertov, Dziga, Annette Michelson, and Kevin O’Brien. “WE: Variant of a Manifesto.” Kino-eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. Berkeley, Ca.: U of California, 1984. 5-9. Print.