Key elements of the cinema vérité style:

• Direct cinema: Cinema vérité filmmakers typically use handheld cameras and natural lighting to create a sense of immediacy and realism.
• Fly-on-the-wall: Cinema vérité filmmakers often adopt a fly-on-the-wall approach, observing their subjects without interfering with their actions or conversations.
• Verbatim sound: Cinema vérité filmmakers typically use verbatim sound, without narration or voiceover, to capture the authentic voices of their subjects.
• Subjectivity: Cinema vérité filmmakers often embrace subjectivity, allowing their own biases and perspectives to inform their films.

Films in the cinema vérité style:

• Vertigo (1958): Alfred Hitchcock’s classic psychological thriller is often cited as an example of early cinema vérité. The film’s use of handheld cameras and subjective camerawork creates a sense of disorientation and unease.
• Salesman (1969): The Maysles brothers’ documentary follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they attempt to make a living in 1960s America. The film’s fly-on-the-wall approach and use of verbatim sound provide a raw and unfiltered look at the lives of its subjects.
• Grey Gardens (1976): David and Albert Maysles’ documentary follows two reclusive relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as they live in squalor in their crumbling East Hampton mansion. The film’s intimate and unflinching portrayal of its subjects is a hallmark of the cinema vérité style.
• Man with a Movie Camera (1929): Dziga Vertov’s silent documentary is considered a seminal work of cinema vérité. The film’s use of rapid montage and innovative camerawork captures the frenetic energy of life in Soviet Russia.
• Night and Fog (1955): Alain Resnais’s short film is a haunting meditation on the Holocaust. The film’s use of archival footage and voiceover creates a powerful and disturbing portrait of the Nazi concentration camps.

Films influenced by cinema vérité:

• The Blair Witch Project (1999): This found-footage horror film uses the conventions of cinema vérité to create a sense of realism and suspense.
• Cloverfield (2008): This handheld-camera monster movie is another example of the found-footage technique.
• Paranormal Activity (2007): This low-budget horror film uses the conventions of cinema vérité to create a sense of authenticity and fear.
• Unsane (2018): This psychological thriller uses a smartphone’s screen as its primary source of footage, creating a claustrophobic and disorienting viewing experience.
• Searching (2018): This mystery thriller unfolds entirely on computer screens, using the conventions of cinema vérité to create a sense of immediacy and realism.