Loud family lives again in HBO film

LOS ANGELES, April 23 (UPI) -- The public-television series "An American Family," considered the origin of reality TV, is the subject of an HBO film airing in the United States this weekend.

"Cinema Verite" stars Tim Robbins as Bill Loud, the flawed patriarch of a California family that was the subject of the exhaustive and critically acclaimed PBS series that aired in 1973 and ended with Bill divorcing wife Pat.

The Washington Post reviewed "Cinema Verite" Saturday and found it to be "too busy too fast, simplifying and overlooking much of what initially made 'An American Family' the sociological treasure trove it still is."

"An American Family," the Post said, broke down the perfect-family portrayals common in television at the time and showed in raw reality the philandering and fighting that eventually dissolved the Loud family. A side plot was the evolving homosexuality of one of the Loud teenagers.

The Post said "Cinema Verite" dwells too much on the link between the Louds and the current crop of reality shows rather than its sociological value, but it also offers some insights into the psychological aspects of the Louds' decision to get involved with the project in the first place.