Cinema Verite

Genre: Drama
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Screenplay by: David Seltzer
Running Time: 90 Minutes
6.5/10 Dropps

Cinema Verite is the latest offering from the HBO original film series to premiere this year. The Sunset Limited which debuted earlier in the year is a tough act to follow, unfortunately Cinema Verite doesn’t even come close to delivering the same magic. Cinema Verite is French for “truthful Cinema” yet is in practice a documentary film-making style that utilizes staged events and provocations to influence the subject matter; a very creative title to give this film.

Cinema Verite is about An American Family, a documentary filmed in 1973, airing on PBS, in which a camera crew  would film the Loud family – a seemingly normal, nuclear, American family, for several months. This is widely believed to be the first glimpse of the reality television genre, although it is branded as a semi-anthropological 12 part documentary. During the filming the heads of household, the father Bill Loud (Tim Robbins) and the mother (Diana Lane), end up getting a divorce.

Cinema Verite has solid strong points but many weak points as well. The film shines with the outstanding technical shots of the early 1970s that Affonso Beato, the cinematographer, creates. The costume and art production design captivate with the stunning visuals of a bright cheery 1973 Santa Barbara, California. The directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who were behind American Splendor, create great transitional edits that parallel footage from the real documentary with that of the movie. Unfortunately, Cinema Verite has many problems that interfere with the enjoyment of the film.

First off, the 90-minute running time is too short to tell the story properly. The film introduces too many characters and develops none of them, including all of the children of the family except for Lance (Thomas Dekker). Perhaps time-wise turning the film into a miniseries would have helped the character development. The main action centers on Pat Loud slowly realizing that her husband has been unfaithful. Diana Lane delivers a subtle yet solid performance while being boxed into a persona that ultimately goes nowhere. Tim Robbins gets robbed of any noteworthy performance due to the fact that Bill Loud is such a one-dimensional character. Villainy for the sake of villainy is such a cheap way to craft a characters personality. James Gandolfini plays the producer of the project Craig Gilbert whose motivations for doing the documentary where never quite clear, but not in a creative ambiguous way, more in the flat storyline manner. Thomas Dekker delivers the most convincing role as the outwardly gay, oldest son Lance Loud. However, his performance is over shadowed by the parents divorce. The scene in which Pat Loud leaves her husband was the climax of the film, yet it was still underwhelming mainly due to one major flaw in Cinema Verite… lack of any exposition. The main point of Cinema Verite is that the cameras ruined the family’s well-being. Well, without any evidence of a happy family pre-show there is no point in which to contrast a change of emotions.

One of the final scenes should really throw the audience because it undermines most of the films message; In the scene the family toasts their 15th minute of fame. The cameras destroyed the family yet they still yearn for them, it’s kind of confusing. Not to mention the film never addresses what the family honestly thinks of the cameras… a glaring miss. HBO’s original films have always been of great quality and substance, so to see how far Cinema Verite missed is puzzling. It’s best to forget this film quickly and look forward to the end of the month where HBO will try again with Too Big To Fail.

-Mat Karako