As Hollywood Embraces AI, a Classic Genre Could Be Making a Comeback Actorsvaultpro

The Decline of Western Civilization. This is Spinal Tap. Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer. They don’t make movies like that anymore, or at least so people say. Films like that certainly won’t be made with artificial intelligence determining what the audience sees, even if the film styles are replicated. The film style is called cinéma vérité, meaning “truthful cinema.” It is not a genre, per se, but a film movement that began in the 1950s and has left a lasting impact on the history of film, influencing projects like The Office spinoff The Paper.

History of Cinéma Vérité

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The idea behind the movement was to capture reality in a more authentic way, without the camera being a mere observer, but being an integral part of the narrative, immersed in the lives of the subjects. It’s a style that started with documentary filmmaking, but quickly made its way into narrative films, becoming a feature of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), the New American Cinema, and Italian Neo-realism.

The filmmaking style was appealing after the years of war propaganda. There was a growing distrust and skepticism of mainstream media. Filmmakers and audiences alike wanted more authenticity on the screen. Made possible by lighter camera gear and other technological advances in audio and film stock, filmmakers could work without scripts, artificial lighting, and crews. This allowed the filmmakers to work more in the moment and capture human interactions as they were. However, they also acknowledged that the presence of a camera impacted the behaviors of the people around them. Keeping the camera as part of the narrative became important to the movement, whereas similar film movements employed a more observational approach.

The Movement’s Relation to Present Day

Domhnall Gleeson's Ned Sampson standing on a desk in The Paper — Domhnall Gleeson’s Ned Sampson standing on a desk in The Paper

In our modern world, artificial intelligence is making facts harder to discern from fiction. Misinformation spreads rapidly, and a lot of it is used to further someone’s agenda. With that in mind, are we headed toward a new wave of cinema realism? Some may think so with the upcoming Netflix film, Nouvelle Vague, which is Richard Linklater’s fictionalization of the start of the French New Wave movement, and the new series, The Paper, a mockumentary show in the style of The Office, featuring a newspaper staff.

Cinéma vérité never truly went away. The movement inspired the very basis of modern filmmaking, from documentaries to the found footage genre, popularized by The Blair Witch Project. Vlogging on YouTube is even a form of the technique. However, the age of the polished influencer is dying. Teenagers are rejecting the posts of internet celebrities, and there is a return to the old Instagram, when people posted their lunches.

As members of society, we are constantly under surveillance by security cameras and smartphones. The human experience has changed a bit because now we know we are always being watched. But if we are constantly watched and observed, has our definition of authenticity changed? Or, despite technological advances, are we always going to reach for a sense of authenticity in our media?

Watch some classic cinéma vérité films, such as Crisis (1963) or Salesman (1969), and let us know if you think cinema is headed toward more realism again or less.