Jackson Booth-Millard This was a French documentary film listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, apart from a few websites explaining what is it I couldn't find many reviews for it at all, I still watched it. Basically the film sees real life individuals discussing the topics of society and happiness in the working class, these testimonies are then recreated by the filmmakers with fictional moments based on their interviews. Later the individuals are seen discussing the images created with their own words and see if the movie recreated by actors obtained and captured their level of reality. To be honest, because of it being subtitled it was hard to concentrate on everything going on, and especially with which of the people seen on screen are supposed to be real or acting, and I wasn't concentrating fully on their discussions. But I suppose could see the point of the film, to see if real life can be recreated with enough realism to convince not only the audience watching, but the actual people watching themselves played by actors, I can only assume this is the reason for it, anyway it's not a bad documentary. Worth watching, at least once, in my opinion!

myxlastxsong This film is incredibly poignant and essential in understanding the history of documentary film-making. Set in 1960's France during the Algerian War (France's equivalent of Vietnam), the viewer is taken on the journey of the lives of some incredibly interesting young adults. The film begins by reeling interviewees in with the simple question, "Are you happy?" Of course this is only a spring board for the subjects to invite us into their lives. Race relations, holocaust memories, mental illness, and so much more plague our subjects, both creating fear and excitement within the viewer. Not to mention there is a very cool, very unique ending, ala Robert Flaherty. Not to be missed.

Edgar Soberon Torchia By 1960 the documentary had evolved with new sound equipment and lighter cameras. In a direct line from the ideas of Flaherty and Vertov, Canadian filmmakers as Michel Brault had made significant shorts as "Les raquetteurs" (1959), while in the United States Robert Drew created his seminal work, "Primary" (1960.) All this activity helped the launching of "cinéma vérité" in France, with this film manifesto made by anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin. With a "caméra vivant" (living camera) and the question "Are you happy?", they went out to the streets of Paris to make a survey, showing passages in the life of students, workers and migrants (including Joris Ivens' future wife), with a short escapade to the St. Tropez beach, and a final confrontation of the creators and subjects with the footage and the idea of constructing objective pieces of reality on film. Rouch and American Frederick Wiseman believed in a kind of documentary open to emotional spaces and fantasy (as opposed, for example, to Richard Leacock's more naturalistic approach), and eventually changed the tone of their works, while the movement finally identified with the concept of "direct cinéma", developed by Canadians and American filmmakers.

JB-81 "Chronicle of A Summer" invented the cinema verité movement, the idea being that by celebrating and revealing the artificial nature of the film-making process, the truth, or more accurately, some truths will emerge. The film is enveloped with a luminous and appealing humanism, and it is a very cool and cinematic portrait of Paris in the beat days. Remember that World War Two was only a decade or so before this and somehow the fog of that war hangs over the film, especially given the backstory of one of the participants, at least this is what I remember..As historic documents go, it is also amazingly compelling today. I find the film much more absorbing than "Salesman" or Drew Associates stuff. Drink espresso instead of a pint before the film, my friend and you'll be fine..JB-81PS If you want to watch paint dry, check out Melville- Although he's pretty great too..