National Film Board of Canada and the Province of Quebec

Direct cinema comes to the NFB in Quebec in what is called the "quiet revolution". This period of cultural and economic empowerment can be understood by briefly the convergence of three phenomena: the current global decolonization, development of the welfare state with an institutional secularization sets, made possible by economic growth in war boom and the baby boom in Quebec.

The result of these three movements that played havoc completely Quebec society is a myriad of conflicting views as reflected in Article from The Raquetteurs Michel Brault (1958). The contribution of the Quebec film in line is probably the most important contribution to world cinema through this film.

United States

For their part the American filmmakers like Don Alan Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and Frederick Wiseman, are part of the vast current of questioning the social generation of the postwar United States, while civic and social movements are U.S. empire in deep questioning. Again looking out on reality is complex, both patriot and revolutionary, committed and perplexed.

Latin America

The direct current will also have a real importance in Latin America where it is most clearly associated with the decolonization movement and political activism, including Fernando E. Solanas (La Hora de los Hornos, 1968) is an iconic figure.

The blurring of the line after

In response to this very critical eye placed on institutions and societies in the years 60-70, which contributes greatly respect the documentary, a new kind of institutional discourse appears in the years 80-90, the heir Marketing and public relations: political correctness.

As if in response to this new propaganda film made the invention of documentary film to direct bill which is yet a fiction. The identity of each and the truth of anything will seem like fictional creations in a world of computer data and media. The current self-fiction documentary is from the same movement. This reflection on the medium of film seems to question the very distinction between documentary and fiction, reflecting as much skepticism of the new kids on TV that they need to believe.

Quotes

"There are two ways of conceiving the real cinema: the first is to pretend to give to see the real and the second is to pose the problem of reality. Similarly, there were two approaches to cinema-verite. The first was to bring the claim to truth. The second was to pose the problem of truth. "- Edgar Morin

"We no longer see the film as an adventure, as an exhibition of life, as a means, yet again, exploration of thought, as a constant questioning. "" About the script "- Gilles Groulx


"To go shoot people, to go among them, with them, they must know that we are there, they must accept the consequences of the presence of the camera and it requires the use of a wide angle. The only legitimate approach is one that underlies a kind of unwritten contract between the people who filmed and filming, that is to say, a mutual acceptance of the presence of the other. "- Michel Brault

"I always said to do this kind of cinema, we must cry with one eye and the other he must think of what remains of film in the store. One half of the brain works on emotion, and the other on technical and at the same time. Now there are many filmmakers who are dedicated exclusively to content. I worked with several directors who had "an idea", but had no idea 'how to turn it into a movie. "- Michel Brault

"A filmmaker is a journalist, he must inform and comment. What matters to me in a film is the moral is that the author expresses. The technique has no value in itself. "History" also has no value, so excuse the film is like the model for an impressionist painter. "The Crue, September 15, 1964 - Gilles Groulx

"Let everyone spends her life caring for his life, that each of our films is a reminder. A film is a critique of everyday life. "Le Devoir, December 20, 1969 - Gilles Groulx

" It must be said, everything we did in France in the field of cinema-truth comes from the NFB (Canada). It was Brault who brought a new technique of filming that we did not know and that we copied from. Besides, really, it was "brauchitis", that's for sure, even people who consider that Brault is a nuisance or were jealous, are forced to acknowledge it."

Origins

Various technological, ideological and social concerns should be developed to help understand this phenomenon in the history of moving images. The key milestones for its historical understanding.

Light Cameras

For there to be direct cinema, there must be hand-held cameras, allowing the camera work on the shoulder. The first cameras were probably the kind of cameras aimed at German ethnographic reports. It is generally accepted in German society Arriflex invented the first small cameras, advanced for aerial surveillance during the war. But the existence of such cameras, which allows a new form of literature to emerge, causes, however, to the creation of direct cinema.

Objective Truth in cinema

On the other hand, the idea of cinema as ontologically objective space is probably since its inception. Mechanics, in all its insensitivity and all its modernity is seen as the guarantor of truth. Kino-pravda Dziga Vertov which can be traced the origins until the 1920s, has developed this view in mind a belief bathed futurism.

Thus it can be explained before the arrival of the direct, the concepts of propaganda, education, literature, authenticity was not distinct and defined the heart of the practice of film. The film in its mechanical objectivity was considered ontological guarantor of truth, even a factor in education. Just watch now a documentary film of the 50s to capture the zeitgeist in this respect, to be convinced of the innocence of the editorial position at the time, yet transparent to the contemporaries of these films. We also understand better then, the importance of what happens with the arrival of the direct terms of the evolution of popular ideas.

The sound before the 60

The sound in the cinema before the arrival of the Nagra is made on devices which are either cumbersome or unreliable, both in the running speed and quality. Between 1950 and 1960 many devices are trying to solve this problem. At the NFB, we develop the system such that SprocketapeMD prevail, however.

In the best case so it sounds captured retrospectively on the same premises and recalibrated the assembly who acted as documentary soundtrack, a soundtrack also often constructed as that of fiction films, from the sounds of atmosphere, sound archives, sound effects, music, voice post-synchronized, commentary (voice over). Then rhyme with probable truth.

In still other cases, the subject "documentary" was filmed in the studio. If the sound is then direct the documentary nature of the capture done, it remains highly debatable. So we rebuilt, for example, the stable in the studio, under the bright lights. We close the soundproof box for the sound engineer, who directs the work of the vaulter, as on a shelf of fiction during filming in the studio, or as now, sometimes even on television. It is this work which is deemed to have caused an awareness among the young technician in the image Michel Brault, then working at the NFB.

From a technical standpoint, the appearance of the portable camera 16 mm Eclair-Coutant, in the late 50s, and its development in subsequent years, is an important step for the future of direct cinema. Synchronized with the Nagra, the Lightning-Coutant can relate shots closer to the reality of the event. Jean Rouch use it often.

Advent of direct cinema

With the advent of lightweight cameras and Nagra, the technical conditions for the emergence of direct exist. But what about social conditions is, what happens in the development of ideas? Again the field is ready, and this is even more at this level that the revolution that bringing the live is great. We are less than 15 years after World War II, in the midst of critical mistakes propaganda.

In the direct effect arises from a desire to say and act in the world, without mediation, while having a keen awareness of the fragility of this position and the ease with which a camera can produce distortions, lies, manipulations. So the novelty is due to direct as much in the material conditions of production, created ethically from documentary look sincere, going to touch things to make representations (film) trying to escape prior to speech, given ideological. This will be done in two U.S. companies rapidly changing, making oil spot further south.

First Venice Film Festival

In 1936, the French Cinematheque was created by Paul-Auguste Harlé, Henri Langlois, Georges Franju and Jean Mitry.

On April 28, 1937, the studios of Cinecittà in Rome are opened, they had to compete with Hollywood in the mind of Luigi Freddi, the director.

September 1, 1939 to be held the first festival in Cannes, chaired by Louis Lumiere but war broke out with the invasion of Poland by Germany, the festival will be postponed until after the war.

In the Soviet Union, the players are rewarded by the price the Soviet people (Nikolai Batalov, actor trained by Constantin Stanislavsky became Artist of the Soviet people in 1933)

United States The Hays Code, named after the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, William Hays, comes into force in 1934. This is a censorship code that must respect moral values. This code will be in force until 1966.

In the movie comedy, the Marx Brothers films appear with Coconut and Monkey Business, their comedy is based on derision and nonsense. The duo Laurel and Hardy formed in early 1920 continued their adventures in The Companions of the Nuba and Laurel and Hardy in the Far West among others. As for Charlie Chaplin, he tackles the 1930s with The City Lights, a silent film at the time of speaking, he then connects to Modern Times (film dumb part), film committed against Taylorism.

In 1952, the first television sets and video clubs are the first surface which causes the film industry to change its advertising approach. It was the second time she had to adapt quickly to a new reality (the economic crisis of 1929). They start dual programs and appropriate format for 16:9 TVs prevent can not project the film without degrading the quality significantly. Because of the madness of McCarthisme, several big names in the industry went into exile abroad (including Chaplin) because they were on the blacklist that prevented them from establishing and work because they were considered to wrongly, as being pro-communist.

During the Second World War Continental-Films is created by the Germans in 1941. The company headed by Alfred Greven produce 30 French films until 1944 (including Le Corbeau Henri-Georges Clouzot and The Strangers in the House of Henry Decoin).

The post-war

The Blum-Byrnes agreements of 1946 imposes in return for partial clearing of the debt of France to the United States, the projection of American films in French cinemas, which contributes to Americanization of cinema in France and Europe.

1920 to the end of the silent movies

Scandinavia, a fantasy film emerges with particular Witchcraft Through the Ages Benjamin Christensen, The Phantom Chariot Victor Sjöström and Pages torn from the book of Satan by Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin with), Vsevolod Pudovkin (the mother), Dziga Vertov (Man with the camera), Alexander Dovzhenko (with Earth) dominate the film in the Soviet Union when Lenin said: Of all the arts The most important thing for us is the art of film.

In 1921, The Kid finally makes famous Charlie Chaplin.

In 1922, Nanook of the North Robert Flaherty allows viewers to discover an unknown world, that of the far north. In Germany, Nosferatu the Vampire fate of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, freely adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the character of Nosferatu (vampire) is played by Max Schreck, the film is considered a masterpiece of expressionism.

In 1928, Renee Falconetti embodies Joan of Arc in The Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Theodor Dreyer.

An art movement 1910s

In the 1910s, American cinema is distinguished by its comedy: Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin, Fatty, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd ... The first stars appear, and Mary Pickford receives $ 100,000 per year. David Wark Griffith (especially with Birth of a Nation and Intolerance), Cecil Blount DeMille (with Cheat), Erich von Stroheim, Thomas H. Ince make their debut in the trade in the United States. In 1919, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin and DW Griffith created the United Artists Corporation (also known as the Associated Artists).

In France it's the debut of director Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac, Leonce Perret and Marcel L'Herbier. An early success of French cinema is a serial ghost, film 5 episodes, directed by Louis Feuillade which reiterates the initiative with the Vampire. The first movie stars in France called Musidora, Harry Baur, Charles Prince and his role Rigadin the vast Sarah Bernhardt came to the theater and Max Linder who inspired Charlie Chaplin.

Germany has created the Universum Film AG in 1917 under orders from General Erich Ludendorff to "fight the British propaganda". These are the beginnings of Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch and Robert Wiene (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

In Italy, Quo Vadis?, Based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, impresses, the film has cost 80,000 lire and necessitated the hiring of 20 lions in the arena scenes, the film is a feature of nine coils, a record for the time. With this success, running in Italy 1913 The Last Days of Pompeii after the novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Cabiria in 1914 by Giovanni Pastrone.

In 1917 in Russia, Father Sergei Ivan Yakov Protazanov gives Mosjoukine celebrity stature in the world of cinema.