Back to life, back to reality

With all the reality TV that is being pumped out you would think that reality cinema would start to kick in. In general the public obviously love ‘good’ reality TV, so why do producers and directors seem to be ignoring this call to action?

I don’t know about you but I go to the movies a lot and the majority of what’s out there is so unreal. I appreciate that many people go to the movies to escape reality, but in reality there is no escape.

I enjoy documentaries and biographies but by today’s terms these cannot be defined as reality cinema.

I’m not suggesting there should be a flux of one reality movie after another, no, definitely not. All it needs is one or two insightful, interesting, and original movies of this type, and I’m certain they would be box office hits.

An obvious topic or theme would of course be sex, sex sells, but I doubt if such potential reality cinema would be produced in the US considering the uproar Kinsey has created. No, I think it will have to be fired up by some European director.

Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs out today in the UK, shows actors Kieran O'Brien and Margot Stilley having real, un-glamorized sex, along with natural sounds rather than the usual background music. While this may be seen as ground breaking cinema, it could also be viewed as soft porn with non-porn actors. Of course I will need to see it to really commit to any opinion.

True reality cinema would however, have no plot, no script etc. Just the all seeing cameras and attached microphones. Will we ever see the day?