Frederick Wiseman Videos

LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET: Q & A with director FREDERICK WISEMAN (Recorded November 4, 2009)

Economist Brad DeLong noted on his blog that part of the productivity gain in the U.S. economy comes not from job production, but from squeezing more work out of employees scared to lose their jobs.

"Movies are about movement," says documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and in his newest film, La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet, he examines the movement of ballet. The film gets inside the workings of the ballet, from rehearsals to marketing sessions, and follows the company through the production of seven ballets: Genus by Wayne McGregor, Le Songe de Med?e by Angelin Preljocaj, La Maison de Bernarda by Mats Ek, Paquita by Pierre Lacotte, Casse Noisette by Rudolph Noureev, Orph?e and Eurydice by Pina Bausch, and Romeo and Juliette by Sasha Waltz.

What distinguishes a "documentary" from a "narrative feature"? You might as well say, what distinguishes Michael Moore from Brad Pitt? Moore has made three of the top five grossing docs since 1982; the other two featured penguins and global warming. We tend to associate "documentary" with "truth," though the "facts" presented are often disputed, and some highly-regarded "documentaries" have staged some or all of their content. Ronald Bergen in The Guardian argues that "there has always been 'cheating' in documentaries." He concludes: "Isn't it time we drop the word 'documentary' for good?" Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is cited in the article as a "leading figure" of Direct Cinema, whose proponents "believed the camera could record the truth unobtrusively. But even Wiseman recognised that there is no pure documentary but all film-making is a process of imposing order on the filmed materials." Yesterday I watched part of Wiseman's The Store (1983) at AFI Dallas, and his skills as a filmmaker are evident: capturing a Neiman-Marcus salesman casually mention a $45,000 price tag, saleswomen being led through "finger calisthenics" and practice smiles, the opening and closing of elevator doors to signal location and time changes. Even if none of the footage was staged, Wiseman decided what to include in the finished film and in what order it would appear. We don't know what he may not have been permitted to shoot. Some people think a "documentary" sounds like medicine: good for you but not fun to watch. I think the term itself has created a ghetto that keeps people from seeing great movies. What do you think? Is the term "documentary" archaic and out-of-date? Has the line between documentary and fiction become blurred beyond recognition? Is it time to drop "documentary" from our cinematic vocabulary?Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Newsstand, Michael Moore, Cinematical Indie Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments