A film blog for students of my classes at Santa Clara University. Use this blog to discuss the films we are studying, classic films, current releases or production issues you encounter while making your own films.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Restrepo documentary, part I
Is this film direct cinema or cinema verite? Why?
17 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The documentary, Restrepo, falls under the category of direct cinema (also known as observational cinema) because it captures reality and all of the truth within it without any interference. It depicts the reality of what war in Afghanistan is really like, and portrays the daily lives of the soldiers that are fighting in one of the most dangerous places of the war. Restrepo explores the mysteries of these soldiers in real-life situations and retells their reality to the audience. The footage is all real and non-obtrusive.
Restrepo is both. The parts of the film which were filmed in Afghanistan is Direct Cinema because the cinematographer simply follows the soldiers around and there is no narration. However, the film is also Cinema Verite because the filmmakers hold interviews with the soldiers after the events have taken place and then use those interviews to help explain what is going on. The filmmakers also make editing choices including the addition of music. There were two parts of the film in which they used the guitar of played by one of the soldiers and played it under other scenes.
I agree with one of the previous comments that proposes Restrepo is both direct cinema and cinema verite. While there are some moments where the filmmakers are just observing the reality and capturing spontaneous moments, there are others like the personal, one-on-one interviews that make this what the book would call a "collaboration with participants." In my opinion, what this does is adds layers of truth so that we as the audience can see the actuality of the situation on different levels-- we see the attack during their Rock Avalanche Operation; we see them in the O.P talking about "mourning quickly and moving on" when their sister company is attacked and loses 9-10 people. But with the cinema verite components like the personal interviews, we see them pause and get try to hold back tears, we see them shift uncomfortably in their seat while they talk about Restrepo, and zone out in retrospection. In this way, we receive another truthful event that is provoked by the filmmakers instead of observation but still revealing just as much truth.
Restrepo is mainly direct cinema (observational cinema) in that the film makers aimed to capture uninhibited flow of events as a group of soldiers fought 15 months in Afghanistan. There were also moments of cinema verite (seeks truth by treating any significant activity, in front of the camera as proper subject matter for the documentary record). There where only a few times when the filmmakers asked questions to the soldier in Restrepo. I believe the reason they asked the following questions was to add internal thought to the external happenings. The first time there was interaction between filmmaker and soldier was after having four to five “fire fights” a day with Taliban. The soldier said that it was pretty exciting, and explained how it was like being on a super high of cocaine. He seemed very happy with himself when the filmmaker asked “How will you go back to civilization?” The soldier looked at him laughed and said “ I don’t know man”. The second question “Why are you scared” was asked as the soldiers were sitting next to each other outside wondering when the enemy would strike and they said laughed nervously and said “because its too quite”. For the rest of the documentary it remained purely observational, and captured moments of fear, teamwork, death and celebration.
I think that the film has aspects of both direct cinema and cinema verite. The direct cinema comes from where there is completely raw footage that is presented in the documentary where there is fighting and discussion between the soldiers. The cinema verite shines through in Restrepo when the authors show themselves early on, and make artistic decisions on when to add in music and interviews. (It reminds me of Band of Brothers). The person filming is also involved with the fighting that is going on in the film which takes away from it being direct cinema. As I mentioned Restrespo is a blend of both of these styles of film-making, so I'm not sure if you can call it more one style than the other.
I definitely think that the film is a blend of cinema verte and observational documentary. The broll footage of the film is captured in an observational manner, following the subjects around, trying to capture the reality of what is happening without disturbing their day to day lives. As the book puts it, observational doc is all about "capturing the spontaneity and uninhibited flow of events as people were living them". In the opening sequence, we see the army truck get attacked and the camera man exit the vehicle to try to capture the real time incident amongst the chaos and terror without disrupting the men. However, the film also uses cinema verte by including interviews of the subjects, something that builds an off-camera relationship between the filmmaker and subject. Personally, I believe that is the best kind/mix of documentary styles because observational documentary provides that harsh reality and sense of surroundings for the audience while cinema verte creates the storyline/narrative and helps build the emotional connection.
After watching the film Restrepo, I would say that it is a combination of direct cinema and cinema verite. This documentary follows a group of American soldiers in their ongoing mission in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Capturing what occurs during the platoon's time with only minimal production staff, the filmmakers take us inside the heart of war. The audience is given a front-row seat to what life is really like in the middle of a battle. While showing the actual scenes in Afghanistan, the filmmakers stick primarily to direct cinema, that is, they show an impartial view of a subject and activity. There are no scripts, no sets, no actors, no takes. There is only reality. This is why documentaries like Restrepo are so powerful for many audiences, because the events shown in these documentaries are completely non-fictional. They really did happen. While this film was primarily direct cinema, there are also parts of the documentary that incorporate cinema verite. Even though there isn't a narrator for this film, the soldiers who are depicted in the film provide offhand interviews after the events portrayed in the film. In these interviews, we as the audience are able to hear from the soldiers the true tales and trials of war, especially some of the harsh depictions captured in the film. Being able to supply their audience with this honest representation of war is what gives this film its cinema verite style.
The filmmakers of Restrepo include elements of both direct cinema and cinema verite to depict the events as close to reality as possible. For the majority of the film, the subjects do not acknowledge the presence of the camera nor do they seem uncomfortable having a filmmaker record their every action. The camera is almost invisible to the subjects, which allows the filmmakers to capture raw violence and emotion such as one of the American soldier's sobbing over the death of Staff Sergeant Rougle after being ambushed in Operation Rock Avalanche. Or even when the camera captured a rare humorous moment when one soldier was trying to explain his family's ranch over the radio. The camera does not attempt to interact with or intervene in these situations, which gives the viewer a sense of immersion with these soldiers. There are some elements of cinema verite as well, such as the interviews with the platoon afterwards, or when the filmmaker asks a soldier how he will go back to real life after this. We also see artistic choices of filmmaker interjection into the narrative- such as quick cuts during the ambush scene, or the use of silence and sound. The cinema verite gives filmmakers more freedom to emphasize the elements of the film they feel are important and use cinematic techniques to draw the audience in.
Restrepo is documentary that I feel includes both a direct cinema and cinema verite style, although I feel the film relies much more heavily on the direct cinema approach. The presence and acknowledgment of the camera helps to distinguish between both approaches. Direct cinema is mainly used because of the nature of the film, which is following soldiers in the middle of ongoing war. The camera serves a more observational role as it simply records the people and environment they are in. It's difficult, for the most part, for the soldiers (the subjects of the film) to acknowledge the camera because they are so busy and concerned with their work. The direct cinema approach used in Restrepo gives the audience a raw, unfiltered look into the lives of these soldiers. This is supported by small, handheld cameras that almost gives the audience a POV look. While I feel direct cinema is used mainly when the soldiers are actively engaged in the war, I see cinema verite in the solder's interviews and occasionally during their downtime. I feel that cInema verite gives the film an artistic style that ties the story together and adds a great deal of meaning and truth that the filmmakers were trying to show beyond the direct cinema b-roll footage. Cinema verite in this film are conscious choices the filmmakers made in terms of supporting the raw unscripted footage of the soldiers and war.
Restrepo was a mix of both cinema verte and observational documentary, but definitely leaned towards the latter. Most of the film was raw footage taken from live events without any real influence from the filmmakers. However, throughout the film, there are interviews conducted with the platoon deployed in the Korangal Valley. Although most of the men knew they were being filmed, it didn't change how they acted. The film is edited well and the interviews are strategically placed. This is where the cinema verte aspect of the film comes into play. Yet, I don't believe this takes away from the spontaneity of the film. The interview aspect of the film helps the viewers better understand the situations and hardships the men faced in the valley. The platoon could experience hard fire 4-5 times per day and it was nice to not only see the raw footage from those events, but to hear from the men. I really enjoyed hearing the men talk about strategy and what locations they were going to explore or push back on next. The filmmakers did a really nice job of incorporating both cinema verte and observational documentary into their film. This helped the viewers connect better with the men and the movie and what they were going through day in and day out.
Restrepo is a combination of cinema verite and direct cinema. Because the subjects and interviewees acknowledge the camera . The only time the filmmakers can be accused of "participating" is when they moved out of the way of danger in the active battle field. The direct cinema approach of the film appears in these moments, in the field where the subjects are reacting truthfully because to do otherwise would be inherently dangerous. The truth of cinema verite comes into play mainly in the interviews, where the soldiers are extremely honest and their stories are underscored by the b-roll and supporting footage from their time spent in Korangal Valley. The combination of cinema verite and direct cinema makes for an overall raw and emotional documentary.
Cinema verite and direct cinema are both important but different cinematic practices that developed as cameras became more portable. Restrepo embodies elements of both. Direct cinema (or observational cinema) is just that-- the camera acts as the observer and there is no intervention or direction from the filmmaker. The majority of this movie could be considered direct cinema. The elements of the film that makes it cinema verite are the interviews conducted to help the audience understand the story. The filmmakers use both elements in a way that makes the audience interested in and attached to the documentary.
I believe that the film "Restrepo" falls underneath both categories of Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité. "Restrepo" grabs different characteristics of both by directly capturing the reality of war in the Karangal Valley, while also unveiling the truth about the soldiers who were positioned there and everything they experienced throughout their time there. The soldiers are talking to the cameras showing the documentary is direct and then while they flash to interviews throughout the film we get to see what was going through their heads and their reactions after the are out of the war zone. To me I would consider Cinéma vérité and Direct Cinema to be very similar in general, so it would be hard to not have some of the same characteristics.
In my opinion, Restrepo is a documentary that combines both direct cinema and cinema verite. The direct cinema, or observational cinema, comes into play with most of the film, where the two filmmakers are merely observing and documenting what happens in the soldier's everyday lives while on deployment. They don't interact with the men or tell them where to go or what to say or how to act. Instead, the filmmakers act as flies on the wall, so to speak. There wasn't lighting set up to capture dimly lit scenes, as is shown with the scene at dusk where the soldiers are laughing and telling stories and you can clearly see the grain in the shot. Cinema verite is seen in the interviews with the soldiers post-war, where the filmmakers had to ask them questions in order to hear about their experiences in Afghanistan. The combination of both styles makes Restrepo a successful and intriguing documentary, one that was very worthy of its Oscar nomination in 2010.
It's difficult these days to have a film that falls only under the category of direct cinema, as in reality all decisions on what to include or how to organize a film push it to fall more into cinema verite. It can definitely be argued that the intent of the filmmakers was to portray a realistic window into the daily lives of these soldiers as they lived and fought in Korengal Valley, and in this way it could be argued that it is direct cinema. The only problem with this, is that in the shaping of the footage into a documentary and the addition of the interviews with soldiers the film strays more into the territory of cinema verite as a message becomes more clear and formed, with b-roll direct cinema footage used to back up the underlying story and message. Overall, the documentary definitely falls into a mix of the two categories, but overall I think the original intent help the argument for modern day direct cinema to be a slightly more accurate category for this film.
The film Restrepo in my opinion is both direct cinema and cinema verite. The definition of direct cinema means there is not a narrator's voice-over. Cinema verite means is implying that the camera is always acknowledged because it performs the raw act of filming real objects, people, and events. It is said by some people that by making the filmmaker and the camera an obvious presence it reveals more truth in cinema. The reason why I say the film Restrepo is both cinema verite and direct cinema, respectively, is because the documentary was shot on hand-held cameras, which followed a small troops of soldiers around, and this is used to discover cinematic truth for its audience. Also, this documentary had a lack of voice-over or music. I believe that involving these two components into a film make for something much more believable and relatable. It gives the audience a chance to connect with the film, even the character, in different types of ways.
The Restrepo is both direct cinema and cinema verite, the documentary which was filmed in Afghanistan used observational cinema to capture what the reality of the war in Afghanistan looked like and to show the living conditions of the soldiers. They were following those soldiers around the war zone, which was a dangerous job. The documentary is also Cinema Verite because the filmmaker also staged one on one interviews with the soldiers after the incident to get their own views and explain what was going on. The addition of music in the editing of the sound was a good choice for the exploitation of the movie. These were the parts that I think the audience will be more likely to focus on.
17 comments:
The documentary, Restrepo, falls under the category of direct cinema (also known as observational cinema) because it captures reality and all of the truth within it without any interference. It depicts the reality of what war in Afghanistan is really like, and portrays the daily lives of the soldiers that are fighting in one of the most dangerous places of the war. Restrepo explores the mysteries of these soldiers in real-life situations and retells their reality to the audience. The footage is all real and non-obtrusive.
Restrepo is both. The parts of the film which were filmed in Afghanistan is Direct Cinema because the cinematographer simply follows the soldiers around and there is no narration. However, the film is also Cinema Verite because the filmmakers hold interviews with the soldiers after the events have taken place and then use those interviews to help explain what is going on. The filmmakers also make editing choices including the addition of music. There were two parts of the film in which they used the guitar of played by one of the soldiers and played it under other scenes.
I agree with one of the previous comments that proposes Restrepo is both direct cinema and cinema verite. While there are some moments where the filmmakers are just observing the reality and capturing spontaneous moments, there are others like the personal, one-on-one interviews that make this what the book would call a "collaboration with participants." In my opinion, what this does is adds layers of truth so that we as the audience can see the actuality of the situation on different levels-- we see the attack during their Rock Avalanche Operation; we see them in the O.P talking about "mourning quickly and moving on" when their sister company is attacked and loses 9-10 people. But with the cinema verite components like the personal interviews, we see them pause and get try to hold back tears, we see them shift uncomfortably in their seat while they talk about Restrepo, and zone out in retrospection. In this way, we receive another truthful event that is provoked by the filmmakers instead of observation but still revealing just as much truth.
Restrepo is mainly direct cinema (observational cinema) in that the film makers aimed to capture uninhibited flow of events as a group of soldiers fought 15 months in Afghanistan. There were also moments of cinema verite (seeks truth by treating any significant activity, in front of the camera as proper subject matter for the documentary record). There where only a few times when the filmmakers asked questions to the soldier in Restrepo. I believe the reason they asked the following questions was to add internal thought to the external happenings.
The first time there was interaction between filmmaker and soldier was after having four to five “fire fights” a day with Taliban. The soldier said that it was pretty exciting, and explained how it was like being on a super high of cocaine. He seemed very happy with himself when the filmmaker asked “How will you go back to civilization?” The soldier looked at him laughed and said “ I don’t know man”.
The second question “Why are you scared” was asked as the soldiers were sitting next to each other outside wondering when the enemy would strike and they said laughed nervously and said “because its too quite”.
For the rest of the documentary it remained purely observational, and captured moments of fear, teamwork, death and celebration.
I think that the film has aspects of both direct cinema and cinema verite. The direct cinema comes from where there is completely raw footage that is presented in the documentary where there is fighting and discussion between the soldiers. The cinema verite shines through in Restrepo when the authors show themselves early on, and make artistic decisions on when to add in music and interviews. (It reminds me of Band of Brothers). The person filming is also involved with the fighting that is going on in the film which takes away from it being direct cinema. As I mentioned Restrespo is a blend of both of these styles of film-making, so I'm not sure if you can call it more one style than the other.
I definitely think that the film is a blend of cinema verte and observational documentary. The broll footage of the film is captured in an observational manner, following the subjects around, trying to capture the reality of what is happening without disturbing their day to day lives. As the book puts it, observational doc is all about "capturing the spontaneity and uninhibited flow of events as people were living them". In the opening sequence, we see the army truck get attacked and the camera man exit the vehicle to try to capture the real time incident amongst the chaos and terror without disrupting the men. However, the film also uses cinema verte by including interviews of the subjects, something that builds an off-camera relationship between the filmmaker and subject. Personally, I believe that is the best kind/mix of documentary styles because observational documentary provides that harsh reality and sense of surroundings for the audience while cinema verte creates the storyline/narrative and helps build the emotional connection.
After watching the film Restrepo, I would say that it is a combination of direct cinema and cinema verite. This documentary follows a group of American soldiers in their ongoing mission in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Capturing what occurs during the platoon's time with only minimal production staff, the filmmakers take us inside the heart of war. The audience is given a front-row seat to what life is really like in the middle of a battle. While showing the actual scenes in Afghanistan, the filmmakers stick primarily to direct cinema, that is, they show an impartial view of a subject and activity. There are no scripts, no sets, no actors, no takes. There is only reality. This is why documentaries like Restrepo are so powerful for many audiences, because the events shown in these documentaries are completely non-fictional. They really did happen.
While this film was primarily direct cinema, there are also parts of the documentary that incorporate cinema verite. Even though there isn't a narrator for this film, the soldiers who are depicted in the film provide offhand interviews after the events portrayed in the film. In these interviews, we as the audience are able to hear from the soldiers the true tales and trials of war, especially some of the harsh depictions captured in the film. Being able to supply their audience with this honest representation of war is what gives this film its cinema verite style.
The filmmakers of Restrepo include elements of both direct cinema and cinema verite to depict the events as close to reality as possible. For the majority of the film, the subjects do not acknowledge the presence of the camera nor do they seem uncomfortable having a filmmaker record their every action. The camera is almost invisible to the subjects, which allows the filmmakers to capture raw violence and emotion such as one of the American soldier's sobbing over the death of Staff Sergeant Rougle after being ambushed in Operation Rock Avalanche. Or even when the camera captured a rare humorous moment when one soldier was trying to explain his family's ranch over the radio. The camera does not attempt to interact with or intervene in these situations, which gives the viewer a sense of immersion with these soldiers.
There are some elements of cinema verite as well, such as the interviews with the platoon afterwards, or when the filmmaker asks a soldier how he will go back to real life after this. We also see artistic choices of filmmaker interjection into the narrative- such as quick cuts during the ambush scene, or the use of silence and sound. The cinema verite gives filmmakers more freedom to emphasize the elements of the film they feel are important and use cinematic techniques to draw the audience in.
Restrepo is documentary that I feel includes both a direct cinema and cinema verite style, although I feel the film relies much more heavily on the direct cinema approach. The presence and acknowledgment of the camera helps to distinguish between both approaches. Direct cinema is mainly used because of the nature of the film, which is following soldiers in the middle of ongoing war. The camera serves a more observational role as it simply records the people and environment they are in. It's difficult, for the most part, for the soldiers (the subjects of the film) to acknowledge the camera because they are so busy and concerned with their work. The direct cinema approach used in Restrepo gives the audience a raw, unfiltered look into the lives of these soldiers. This is supported by small, handheld cameras that almost gives the audience a POV look. While I feel direct cinema is used mainly when the soldiers are actively engaged in the war, I see cinema verite in the solder's interviews and occasionally during their downtime. I feel that cInema verite gives the film an artistic style that ties the story together and adds a great deal of meaning and truth that the filmmakers were trying to show beyond the direct cinema b-roll footage. Cinema verite in this film are conscious choices the filmmakers made in terms of supporting the raw unscripted footage of the soldiers and war.
Restrepo was a mix of both cinema verte and observational documentary, but definitely leaned towards the latter. Most of the film was raw footage taken from live events without any real influence from the filmmakers. However, throughout the film, there are interviews conducted with the platoon deployed in the Korangal Valley. Although most of the men knew they were being filmed, it didn't change how they acted. The film is edited well and the interviews are strategically placed. This is where the cinema verte aspect of the film comes into play. Yet, I don't believe this takes away from the spontaneity of the film. The interview aspect of the film helps the viewers better understand the situations and hardships the men faced in the valley. The platoon could experience hard fire 4-5 times per day and it was nice to not only see the raw footage from those events, but to hear from the men. I really enjoyed hearing the men talk about strategy and what locations they were going to explore or push back on next. The filmmakers did a really nice job of incorporating both cinema verte and observational documentary into their film. This helped the viewers connect better with the men and the movie and what they were going through day in and day out.
Restrepo is a combination of cinema verite and direct cinema. Because the subjects and interviewees acknowledge the camera . The only time the filmmakers can be accused of "participating" is when they moved out of the way of danger in the active battle field. The direct cinema approach of the film appears in these moments, in the field where the subjects are reacting truthfully because to do otherwise would be inherently dangerous. The truth of cinema verite comes into play mainly in the interviews, where the soldiers are extremely honest and their stories are underscored by the b-roll and supporting footage from their time spent in Korangal Valley. The combination of cinema verite and direct cinema makes for an overall raw and emotional documentary.
Cinema verite and direct cinema are both important but different cinematic practices that developed as cameras became more portable. Restrepo embodies elements of both. Direct cinema (or observational cinema) is just that-- the camera acts as the observer and there is no intervention or direction from the filmmaker. The majority of this movie could be considered direct cinema. The elements of the film that makes it cinema verite are the interviews conducted to help the audience understand the story. The filmmakers use both elements in a way that makes the audience interested in and attached to the documentary.
I believe that the film "Restrepo" falls underneath both categories of Direct Cinema and Cinéma vérité. "Restrepo" grabs different characteristics of both by directly capturing the reality of war in the Karangal Valley, while also unveiling the truth about the soldiers who were positioned there and everything they experienced throughout their time there. The soldiers are talking to the cameras showing the documentary is direct and then while they flash to interviews throughout the film we get to see what was going through their heads and their reactions after the are out of the war zone. To me I would consider Cinéma vérité and Direct Cinema to be very similar in general, so it would be hard to not have some of the same characteristics.
In my opinion, Restrepo is a documentary that combines both direct cinema and cinema verite. The direct cinema, or observational cinema, comes into play with most of the film, where the two filmmakers are merely observing and documenting what happens in the soldier's everyday lives while on deployment. They don't interact with the men or tell them where to go or what to say or how to act. Instead, the filmmakers act as flies on the wall, so to speak. There wasn't lighting set up to capture dimly lit scenes, as is shown with the scene at dusk where the soldiers are laughing and telling stories and you can clearly see the grain in the shot. Cinema verite is seen in the interviews with the soldiers post-war, where the filmmakers had to ask them questions in order to hear about their experiences in Afghanistan. The combination of both styles makes Restrepo a successful and intriguing documentary, one that was very worthy of its Oscar nomination in 2010.
It's difficult these days to have a film that falls only under the category of direct cinema, as in reality all decisions on what to include or how to organize a film push it to fall more into cinema verite. It can definitely be argued that the intent of the filmmakers was to portray a realistic window into the daily lives of these soldiers as they lived and fought in Korengal Valley, and in this way it could be argued that it is direct cinema. The only problem with this, is that in the shaping of the footage into a documentary and the addition of the interviews with soldiers the film strays more into the territory of cinema verite as a message becomes more clear and formed, with b-roll direct cinema footage used to back up the underlying story and message. Overall, the documentary definitely falls into a mix of the two categories, but overall I think the original intent help the argument for modern day direct cinema to be a slightly more accurate category for this film.
The film Restrepo in my opinion is both direct cinema and cinema verite. The definition of direct cinema means there is not a narrator's voice-over. Cinema verite means is implying that the camera is always acknowledged because it performs the raw act of filming real objects, people, and events. It is said by some people that by making the filmmaker and the camera an obvious presence it reveals more truth in cinema. The reason why I say the film Restrepo is both cinema verite and direct cinema, respectively, is because the documentary was shot on hand-held cameras, which followed a small troops of soldiers around, and this is used to discover cinematic truth for its audience. Also, this documentary had a lack of voice-over or music. I believe that involving these two components into a film make for something much more believable and relatable. It gives the audience a chance to connect with the film, even the character, in different types of ways.
The Restrepo is both direct cinema and cinema verite, the documentary which was filmed in Afghanistan used observational cinema to capture what the reality of the war in Afghanistan looked like and to show the living conditions of the soldiers. They were following those soldiers around the war zone, which was a dangerous job. The documentary is also Cinema Verite because the filmmaker also staged one on one interviews with the soldiers after the incident to get their own views and explain what was going on. The addition of music in the editing of the sound was a good choice for the exploitation of the movie. These were the parts that I think the audience will be more likely to focus on.
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