Film studies assignment 4

Cinema Verite

assignment four

by Kelly Cantrell.

(520 words)

Realist cinema to me is a “style” of film making in which the director attempts to “capture” reality by making the film gritty, realistic and simplified in terms of style, sound and setting.

By this I mean, no elaborate sets, big name actors, glamorous costumes and ideological portrayals of characters and situations.

Instead the director will often go for a “low budget” feel, opting to use hand held, low end cameras as a pose to high end high definition Hollywood style cameras.

The sound is also very important, focusing on creating a “realistic” soundscape, rather than studio recorded voices and background music.

For example, one could state that the 1966 BBC television drama, “Kathy come home” by Jeremy Sandford follows the conventions of realist cinema in it’s stylistic approach but also and perhaps more importantly for the subject matter that the film revolves around. Homelessness, unemployment and mothers loosing their children to social service agency’s are issues that were not hugely popularized by the media at that time and therefore this film was breaking through these boundaries and bringing public awareness to these issues, in a realistic and truthful portrayal of a middle class couple who have kids, obtain a nice “modern” home and then due to circumstances beyond their control are forced to deal with eviction, poverty, homelessness, hunger and the loss of their children.

This is not documentary, but rather a comment on very real issues within society, that is presented to us in a realistic way, and therefore the public can relate to and empathies with the situation because it is presented to them in a way that they can understand and see as truth.

A documentary on the other hand is a case of interviewing real people, in real settings, about them or other people’s real life situations or circumstances, with the intent to show the public reality. Then there is reality TV, one famous example being “Big brother”, is this realist film? They are real people, in a real setting, or a purpose built setting, but in my opinion it is not realist film, although it could easily be confused with realist film as it follows some of the same set of conventions in term of style, however the themes and motives these reality TV shows are concerned with do not really represent real life, but instead attempt to create a false reality, that’s main concern is with popularity, sex and fame. It does not attempt to address any of life’s harsher realities as the documentary “Kathy come home” did.

There are also a train of films that use realist conventions in terms of style, such as “The blair witch project”, “Cloverfield”, “rec” and some that mix realist and documentary style conventions with other genres such as horror or action, this can be seen in both “District 9” and the French film “District 9”.

I feel these films use some of the stylistic qualities from realist film, but are not true realist films because their subject matter is purely fictional or a false portrayal of idealistic media romanticism.