Man With the Movie Camera (1929)

Described by director Dziga Vertov as an experiment in the language of pure cinema, "The Man With the Movie Camera" is perhaps the most dazzling and sophisticated, not only of Soviet, but of world silent cinema. Music by the Alloy Orchestra.

In my top three

This is a really fun film.

First off, it's fun to watch an experimental film documenting the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Second, the grammar of the film is very peculiar. The opening shot turns the camera on the viewer. The ideas of editing, what film is, and the role of the audience are all being questioned. Third, the score is fantastic. This version has the best score, which not only holds up, but elevates.

Not a date movie, or a blockbuster, but a very enjoyable peculiar experimental documentary. Definitely worth an hour of your time. June 10, 2008

an artistic slice of life

The Man With The Movie Camera is an excellent piece of work by Dziga Vertov who directs this film with lots of artistic quality. The idea is to essentially provide viewers with a slice of life as it existed at the time in The Soviet Union. The Man With The Movie Camera uses fantastic camera and cinematography techniques to make this movie stand out as a very good one.

This slice of life movie runs a full 68 minutes without any intertitles, plot, or actors. The people we see in the film are real, everyday people of different classes and backgrounds. I know; the former Soviet Union was to be a classless society; but it's abundantly clear in this movie that some people were so poor they had to sleep in the streets while others clearly enjoyed life at the beach or very modern clothing for their outings and social gatherings. In addition, we see the effects of Communism in the various social halls and a passenger freighter all named after Lenin. The newspaper is a union run newspaper; and except for the wealthy most people do wear essentially the same style of clothing.

The film brilliantly starts with a movie theater filling up with moviegoers and the projectionist and orchestra pit begin the performance; thus there is a movie within a movie. Very impressive! The footage also includes quite a bit of time filming the director as he goes all over a city, towns and beaches trying and succeeding at capturing this precious slice of life.

We see happy people, sad and depressed people, storekeepers, mail carriers. As the film goes along the day begins and we see the people of a city rise from their beds to start what becomes an incredibly busy day; and this is documented very well in this film.

Overall, I highly recommend this film for those of us interested in looking at the past and people who like sociology will also appreciate this movie. The musical score for this silent movie is also excellent. The only extra feature is a commentary; but I think the film stands quite well on its own.

Enjoy!
May 7, 2008

Film Class

This film shows how imaginative and scientific Vertov was. Within the film, politics are present but more interestingly you can see the humor. This film is great to see after getting that passionate feeling about film making bc it can open the curious mind a jar more. March 25, 2008

Dull early experimental film

Some early films continue to shine because of their artistry. Others get devalued because technology has dated them. This is ond of the latter. I found this film collage of life in 1929 Russia to be dull. Editing which might have seemed revolutionary in 1929 now seems obvious. Pass on this one. November 27, 2007

Not a film as much as a language.

The Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

The opening moments of the newly-restored edition of Dziga Vertov's most famous film, The Man with a Movie Camera, explain that the silent film contains no cards because Vertov was less interested in making a traditional movie than in creating a visual language. Thus, those who go into this looking for a traditional movie aren't going to get much out of it; there's no plot, no characters, no story, not much of anything, really. The idea behind Vertov's vision was to (a) document daily life in contemporary Russia, and (b) to use nothing but images to convey the ambient emotions. And in that respect, the film is a smashing success; if you allow it to simply wash over you, it's a wonderful piece of work.

Perhaps even more interesting than Vertov's attempt to create a visual language was the movie's sense of what is popularly called "meta" today; the documentary itself is framed with images of a movie theater where people are attending a screening of, you guessed it, The Man with a Movie Camera. If nothing else, these scenes alone-- unheard of at the time-- would cement Vertov's place as one of film's pioneers.

Its importance in the greater scheme of cinema would be hard to overstate; Vertov's little self-aware documentary was a direct influence on hundreds, if not thousands, of movies that followed (most importantly Triumph des Willens, which changed not only the face of filmmaking, but the face of the entire marketing industry as well). Eighty years later, The Man with a Movie Camera has as much power to impress as it did when it was released-- as long as you're willing to take it on its own terms. **** February 27, 2007

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