The Falls blows pretty much every other entry in this genre out of the water, even for my money much acclaimed stuff like F for Fake and Sans soleil.
series 7 the contenders, district 9 and cloverfield all use the cameras attention 2 tell a story
District 9 is an interesting in between case. I think the film works well in the first half when it uses the fake documentary format and then completely falls apart when it loses the format and becomes a very standard action film.
Spinal Tap also inspired a pretty funny rap mockumentary called Fear of a Black Hat.
Would F for Fake qualify as a pseudodocumentary or just a mock-pseudodocumentary? Or perhaps more accurately it could be called a pseudodocumentary hybrid.
Incident at Loch Ness
See Albert Brooks’ REAL LIFE.
It’s brutal.
I have no idea what F for Fake would qualify as. It claims to be a truthful documentary, but it also half-implies that it could all just be bullshit. But then again, that too is probably just a trick. I would put it under the category of mind game.
How would you qualify Sans Soleil, (Chris Marker) it’s considered a fictional documentary on human memory and even a travelogue by some. The images are real..the giraffe scene incredible and those cats !!! At the same time the narrator is a fictional newscaster reading letters from a camera man that doesn’t exist.
A little known faux documentary is No Lies, directed by Mitchell Block. It’s a short film that was Block’s NYU thesis film but it is now on the U.S. National Registry of important movies.
Fo9r many years Mitch Block was the head of the Oscar panel for documentaries.
The film, about a woman telling the horrific story of how she was raped, is shot in Direct Cinema style and I can’t give away much more than that.
Romero’s Diary of the Dead
Neil Burger’s Interview with an Assassin
Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast
Protokoll einer Revolution (Transcript of a Revolution) by Günter Lemmer
Great recommendation, Frank. Just found the film on Vimeo.
…no lies – a film by Mitchell W. Block from Direct Cinema Limited on Vimeo.
Currently at the Whitney:
http://www.kerrytribe.com/hm_main.html
See it.
What about Godard’s La Chinoise?
If F for Fake counts, then it’s my favorite.
I hold a soft spot for Leslie Vernon: Behind the Mask.
Diary of the Dead was terrible, but to each his own.
For “mockumentary” comedies, Waiting for Guffman is the best. or at least tied with Spinal Tap.
^ Those are my favorite funny ones.
I had forgotten about Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver until it was just added to theauteurs database. It’s one of his most interesting films.
F For Fake is an interesting case. I hadn’t thought of it as one, but then again I guess the whole point of the film is to call itself into question.
It’s not a wholly fake documentary, but Bert Stern’s JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY is fake cinema verite.
Brilliantly contrived film; amazing musical performances.
The process is essentially Madison Avenue meets The Last Waltz, circa mid 20th century.
Ari
Surprised there hasn’t been a thread on this topic before (or so I haven’t been able to find). It’s an interesting subgenre – using documentary conventions to tell a fictional story. The format can raise interesting questions in terms of questioning and mocking claims of documentary truth and that the camera can objectively capture reality.
But it’s used mostly for comedies. Musical ones – The Ruttles and then, most famously with This is Spinal Tap (and more recent ones like Hard Core Logo, Fubar and It’s All Gone Pete Tong). And more general comedies like the Christopher Guest ones and Sacha Baron Cohen films. And TV shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm (only partially) and The Office.
It can also be used for horror films like Cannibal Holocaust and Blair Witch (and Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity and REC and Diary of the Dead).
It’s strange. I like the idea of the fake documentary generally better than the results. I would think a director like Haneke or De Palma would make the masterpiece of the pseudodocumentary (but De Palma’s Redacted was largely seen as a failure – I actually like it but it could have been much more).
Here would be my top five:
Man Bites Dog
David Holzman’s Diary
Punishment Park
Bob Roberts
Husbands and Wives (Woody uses elements of fake documentaries in a few of his other films – I guess Zelig would be his most famous one but I prefer Husbands and Wives)
I should also add Bunuel’s Land Without Bread although its status is disputed.