High School

MOVIE #1,388 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 02.31.24 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝙲𝚄𝚂: 𝙵𝚁𝙴𝙳𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙲𝙺 𝚆𝙸𝚂𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙽 Wiseman really lingering on this high schooler girl’s ass was… a choice (see below — also: extremely odd that this is the still on the movie poster?), but when he's not leering at underage girls, there's some excellent stuff here. It's pretty amazing he was able to capture everyone acting so naturalistic. It truly doesn't feel like the camera is there. All of the subjects appear to be acting exactly like they would whether or not they were being captured on film forever. From the disciplinarian to the earnest young teachers preaching the gospel of Paul Simon and every precocious student and wallflower in between, they all feel real. Which, duh, that's the point of a documentary. But it's easier said than done and Wiseman was clearly doing it better (and before) everybody else.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,387 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,389 ⫸

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High School is a 1968 American documentary film by Frederick Wiseman that shows a typical day for students and faculty at a Pennsylvanian high school during the late 1960s. It is one of the first direct cinema (or cinéma vérité) documentaries . It was shot over five weeks between March and April 1968 at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The film was not shown in Philadelphia at the time of its release, because of Wiseman's concerns over what he called "vague talk" of a lawsuit. It was released on November 13, 1968.