Word: titicut
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...when Frederick Wiseman directed his first documentary, Titicut Follies, a powerful look at life inside a Massachusetts prison for the criminally insane. At that time Follies' cinema-verite style exemplified the vanguard of documentary filmmaking: no interviews, no narration, no overt intrusion of the filmmaker's point of view. Since then, the technique has become something of a TV cliche. Prime-time shows from Hill Street Blues to CBS's 48 Hours have appropriated the hand-held camera and other slice-of-life touches. Even commercial directors have tossed away their tripods: cameras wander about relentlessly, trying to sell "reality...
...except by accident, but they are not exactly fun either. Every effort is made to duplicate the real thing: actual forces clash by day and night, and umpires determine who would have killed whom. It is a natural subject for the cinema verite technique of Frederick Wiseman (Canal Zone, Titicut Follies), and the only thing lacking in Manoeuvre is the smell of commingled sweat and exhaust...
...reaction will hardly surprise Wiseman. Ever since the former Brandeis University law lecturer went with mike and camera into a Massachusetts state hospital for the criminally insane, he has been unquestionably the nation's most provocative film documentarian. That first film, Titicut Follies (1967), was banned by a state court after then-Massachusetts Attorney General Elliot Richardson argued that the film violated the privacy of inmates. Since then, Wiseman has gone from High School to Hospital to Basic Training. "Shooting these films about institutions," he has said, "is like being on the track of the Abominable Snowman...
SPECIAL OF THE WEEK, PBS's Monday-night alternative to pro football and Laugh-In, opened with a documentary by Fred Wiseman, the most accomplished director of the cinéma vérité genre (Titicut Follies, Hospital). This time, in Basic Training, he focused on the rigors and the ridiculousness of boot camp in the summer of 1970 at Fort Knox, but he neglected to report the substantial reforms that have swept over the Army since. The result is an engrossing film but failed journalism. This week the PBS Special is a revival...
John Marshall is the instructor. From 1958-1960, Marshall served as associate director of the Film Study Center at Harvard. He later served as cameraman-reporter for N. B. C., and photographed the controversial documentary "Titicut Follies" for Fred Wiseman...