Film gives the illusion of being real to a much greater degree than the stage or any other dramatic art form, and yet the audience is aware that the film is not real, that it is created, and that there is a point of view behind this act of creation. With a documentary film, however, the audience is more inclined to accept whatever is seen as real and to fail to realize that there is a point of view shaping the material in a certain way. What the audience is accepting is determined by the form--the audience knows when a scene in a fiction film has been staged but accepts that a documentary is "real" and not staged, even though it may be. The artifact Truth or Dare (1991) is a hybrid documentary, utilizing different documentary styles and mixing them with the somewhat different tradition of the concert film. However, close examination shows that much of what appears is questionable either because it is staged or because the intelligence shaping what is seen and intentionally working tom project an image is that of the central figure, Madonna, the performer rather than the filmmaker. She shows what she wants and goads others into serving her image needs throughout the film, thus bending the meaning of representation and reality in the documentary form.
The concert film is not a documentary in the usual sense, though it is about a real event. It differs in that it usually concentrates on performance, which is a step removed from the reality of the documentary, though often there is a certain attempt to create a sense of the backstage life. The emphasis in this film is on that backstage life, with the concert material interspersed in a different style than is used for the rest of the film. The film uses some of the conventions of cinéma-verité, but the material is shaped in a way that is not common in that form of filmmaking. The filmmaker is not merely observing. He is never visible, but he interacts with the subject of the...