''Cinema Verite'' is a 2011
HBO drama film directed by
Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Shari Springer Berman (born July 13, 1963) and Robert Pulcini (born August 24, 1964) are an American team of filmmakers.
Biographies
Both Springer Berman and Pulcini were born in New York City, New York, New York (state), New York. Springer Be ...
. The film's main
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast t ...
starred
Diane Lane
Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film '' A Little Romance''.
The two films that could have catapulted her to st ...
,
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his rol ...
,
James Gandolfini
James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (; September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor. For his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'', he won three Emmy Awards, five Screen ...
and
Patrick Fugit. The film follows a fictionalized account of the production of ''
An American Family'', a 1973
PBS documentary television series that is said to be one of the earliest examples of the
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1 ...
genre. Principal photography was completed in Southern California.
The film premiered on April 23, 2011.
Plot synopsis
The film begins in 1971 with Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) discussing with Pat Loud (Diane Lane) the idea of a documentary series that would concern her family's day-to-day lives in Santa Barbara, CA. Pat considers the proposal and accepts, amidst her son Lance (Thomas Dekker) moving to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Pat's husband Bill (Tim Robbins) travels often away on business, leaving his wife alone to care for their five children.
The crew (Patrick Fugit, Shanna Collins) moves in with the Louds and begins to document them. Relations between Pat and Bill grow frayed due to his time away and the stress of the TV show's production. Gilbert tells Pat of his suspicions surrounding Bill's trips away, giving fairly strong evidence that he is cheating on her. The crew fights with Gilbert about his documentary technique, as he makes them film many personal moments.
After surreptitiously duplicating the keys to Bill's office, Pat makes a late night trip to the office and discovers documents that confirm he is cheating on Pat with two other women, resulting in Pat's preparations to file for a divorce. Angry, she tells Gilbert to have cameras there when she tells Bill, wanting "his bimbos to see it, the whole world to see it." Against her wishes, he films Pat's conversation with her brother and his wife.
Pat begins to regret her decision to let Gilbert film the break up, and tries to get one of her sons to tell him while driving Bill home instead. He, however, does not work up the courage to do this, and Pat kicks Bill out of her home on camera.
The film cuts to one year later, when ''An American Family'' is experiencing its premiere. The show airs to strong television ratings but much criticism of members of the family, in particular Pat for how she came off on camera and Lance for his
homosexuality
Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...
. The family then gets together to "fight back", addressing their critics by appearing on many talk shows.
Title cards at film's end offer updates for each Loud family member. Lance died of
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...
-related hepatitis in 2001; his last wish for his parents was to cohabitate. They currently live together in Los Angeles.
Cast
*
Diane Lane
Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film '' A Little Romance''.
The two films that could have catapulted her to st ...
as Pat Loud
*
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his rol ...
as Bill Loud
*
James Gandolfini
James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (; September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor. For his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'', he won three Emmy Awards, five Screen ...
as Craig Gilbert
*
Kathleen Quinlan
Kathleen Denise Quinlan Abbott (born November 19, 1954) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel '' I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,'' and her Golde ...
as Mary
*
Thomas Dekker as
Lance Loud
*
Patrick Fugit as
Alan Raymond
*
Shanna Collins as
Susan Raymond
*
Willam Belli as
Candy Darling
*
Lolita Davidovich as Valerie
*
Kyle Riabko as
Jackie Curtis
Jackie Curtis (February 19, 1947 – May 15, 1985) was an American actress, writer, singer, and Warhol superstar.
Early life and career
Jackie Curtis was born in New York City to John Holder and Jenevive Uglialoro. She had one sibling, half-br ...
*
Kaitlyn Dever
Kaitlyn Rochelle Dever (; born December 21, 1996) is an American actress. She gained recognition for her roles in the FX crime drama television series '' Justified'' (2011–2015), the ABC/ Fox sitcom '' Last Man Standing'' (2011–2021), the N ...
as Michelle Loud
*
Nick Eversman
Nicholas Eversman (born February 15, 1986) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Michael Winstone on the ABC mystery drama ''Missing'' and Liam Jones II on the ABC fantasy adventure drama ''Once Upon a Time
"Once upon a time" is a ...
as Grant Loud
*
Johnny Simmons
Johnny Simmons (born November 28, 1986) is an American former actor. He is known for his roles as Dylan Baxter in ''Evan Almighty'' (2007), Chip Dove in ''Jennifer's Body'' (2009), "Young Neil" Nordegraf in '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' (2010) ...
as Kevin Loud
* Caitlin Custer as Delilah Loud
*
Jake Richardson
Jacob Matthew Richardson (born February 20, 1985) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the film ''Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves'' and the series ''Fudge''.
Career
Richardson landed his first acting role in 1995 at the a ...
as Tommy Goodwin
Production
Principal photography was completed primarily in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
The film is presented in chapters, with chapter titles such as ''The Chelsea'' and ''The Battle for the Camera Begins''. When the chapter titles are shown, short clips from the original
1973 documentary are shown alongside in split screen format.
Critical reception
''Cinema Verite'' met with a positive reception from television critics. On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
the film received a "generally positive" score of 74 out of 100, based on 23 reviews.
Awards and nominations
Notes
References
Further reading
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*
*
External links
*
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{{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series
2011 drama films
2011 television films
2011 films
American LGBT-related films
Films about television
Films based on television series
Films directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Films shot in California
HBO Films films
LGBT-related films based on actual events
Films scored by Rolfe Kent
2011 LGBT-related films
American drama television films
2010s American films