The use of the handheld camera in cinema has been active for many years, with early silent-era experiments in E. A. Dupont’s Variety (1925) and Abel Gance’s Napoleon((1927), plus several examples from it’s origins in reportage and documentary. At the time the decision to go handheld was primarily for reasons of practicality, allowing the filmmaker to film on the go, and capture the material in a much more free form manner than when mounted on a tripod or dolly.
It’s appeal and reasons for use grew over time. Roberto Rosselini’s Desiderio (1946) was shot using a handheld camera, and considered one of his first Neo Realist films. Likewise John Cassavete’s Shadows (1959) and Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave film Breathless (1960) both paved the way for a revolution in how drama and documentary forms could merge to create a cinema of heightened authenticité. If we skip ahead to cinema from the Dogme Manifesto of 1995 or recent British socialist films, it is plain to see that the use of the handheld camera has grown in popularity.
Filmmakers today continue using the handheld camera as a means to engage their audience. Think of the intense emotional dramas by Alejandro Gonzales Inarittu and Darren Aronofsky, or the socially aware films by the Dardenne Brothers, not to mention the visceral dramas by Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold, and even the minimalist work of Sofia Coppola. The list goes on and on, and also includes many fine examples from our own turf – David Michod’s Animal Kingdom, Claire McCarthy’s Waiting City, Kriv Stender’s Boxing Day, Bill Bennett’s Kiss or Kill, Cate Shortland’s Sumersault. And so many others.
It is often assumed that films using handheld camera fit into the art house, indy sector. Indeed shooting with a handheld camera can keep costs to a minimum, and can help give emphasis to story over style. That said, there are many major Hollywood blockbusters that employ handheld, and it can be readily found in work by Oliver Stone and Michael Mann, not to mention the Bourne Film Series which continues to grow so very impressively and many a British TV crime drama.
Indeed there is much to be said about this marvellous device. So this is just the beginning…
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