Abstract

Jean Rouch advocated "cinéma-vérité" because he considered narrative cinema as the best way to show truth. In his film La Pyramide humaine , some black African students and some white French students at a Côte-d'Ivoire high school improvise according to a general story line in which they make friends with one another. Rouch, following his performers with the camera in his hand, provokes them into action and storytelling. He engages in storytelling as an accomplice. In the classical cinema, characters are in the image, while the camera/director stays outside. Within this framework what the character sees is shown to be equal with what the camera/director sees. According to Deleuze, this not only presents the model of truth but also establishes the identity of the character seen and the one who sees. But in La Pyramide humaine, the camera/director is involved in the image. This precludes the equation, and, consequently, the established truth as well as the identity of characters. In this way, the students become others. "I is another" is a false proposition, but it enables them to tell a story. It has the power to create - to create a truth. Such creativity is what Rouch aimed for in his cinema