cinéma vérité, a style of filmmaking that attempts to convey candid realism. Often employing lightweight, hand-held cameras and sound equipment, it shows people in everyday situations and uses authentic dialogue, naturalness of action, and a minimum of rearrangement for the camera. The style was pioneered in the late 1950s and early 60s by such French documentary filmmakers as Jean Rouch and Chris Marker and has been influential in the work of a number of directors, most notably Jean-Luc Godard. American filmmakers, who sometimes called the style "direct cinema," were quick to adopt the technique. Included among them are Richard Leacock, D. A. Pennebaker, Albert and David Maysles, Frederick Wiseman, and Robert Drew. More recently, such documentary makers as Ken (and Ric) Burns and Barbara Kopple have made cinéma vérité techniques central to their films.

cinéma vérité(French; : “truth cinema”)

French film movement of the 1960s that strove for candid realism by showing people in everyday situations with authentic dialogue. Influenced by documentary filmmaking and Italian Neorealism, the method produced such outstanding examples as Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer (1961) and Chris Marker's Joli Mai (1962). A similar movement in the U.S., where it was called “direct cinema,” captured the reality of a person or an event by using a handheld camera to record action without narration, as in Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies (1967) and the Maysles brothers' Salesman (1969).

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