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Man with the Movie Camera
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| Product Description: | | | | | 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. | |
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0 of 0 people found the above review helpful.: | | Unique and unforgettable cinematic experience!, May 22, 2009 |
| | Even if Soviet Russian Avant Garde is your least favourite genre, chances are that "Man With the Movie Camera" will still leave a deep and permanent impression on your mind and compel you to watch it more than once. Unlike other famous Russian films of the late silent era such as Eisenstein's "The Battleship Potemkin" and Pudovkin's "The Fall of St Petersburg", the director of this film, Dziga Vertov, took an even more revolutionary step away from mainstream commercial cinema, and even fiercely resisted the narrative film, meaning the staged, theatrical, planned movie with a story and actors. This outlook on art and cinema led to Vertov developing the concepts of capturing "life unawares" and "life as it is" with the movie camera to create a unique experience in film documentary which is at the same time an impressive work of art.
While the word `art' usually conjures up images of beauty, style, grace and elegance, the viewer's first impression of "Man With the Movie Camera" is anything but beautiful, as images of city streets and people waking to a new day and getting ready for work bombard our visual senses. But before long it is obvious that there is a distinct rhythm, and what seem like random images taken from moments out of everyday life are put together - like a musical composition - to create a perfectly choreographed work of great artistic skill. Even if the viewer has no interest in the artistic aspects, the bombardment of images using the whole wide range of editing and camera techniques known at the time becomes quite mesmerizing and fascinating. Images of streets in Russian cities like Moscow, Kiev and Odessa show transportation from trains, trams, horse carriages, ambulance and fire engines, then people going to work in coal mines, fields and in the city, using modern technology of the time such as the telephone, switchboard and typewriter; people going to a wedding, a funeral, having a baby, being pampered in a beauty salon, then enjoying recreation after work such as going to the beach, dancing and playing sports and games. Every aspect of life is touched on, and it never becomes boring because the tempo changes frequently, or we see the cameraman himself, who was Vertov's brother, seeking the best position to film, then there are close-ups, unusual angles, frozen frames, montages and other effects to keep the viewer under a spell.
This Image DVD has a musical score by the Alloy Orchestra, based on instructions by Vertov himself because in a visual work of art like this, the music should underscore and complement the images as best as possible. The Alloy Orchestra has achieved this goal brilliantly, and there is also an optional audio commentary to provide more insight into Vertov's ideas, as well as various background information which help the viewer appreciate the film on a deeper level.
Vertov resisted the notion of telling a story like all his contemporaries, but he ended up telling a much more profound and important story than all other filmmakers, namely the story of life, told in the universal language of pictures, of cinema, which requires no words and no speech. This is perhaps what makes this film special and unique, and transcends any label one might like to give it, whether Soviet Avant Garde, Silent or documentary. An experience not easily forgotten, and well worth adding to a serious film collection!
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0 of 0 people found the above review helpful.: | | A Great Example of Exciting Visual Nonstory Pure Cinema, April 20, 2009 |
| | I know that many people throw around the terms "story" and "narrative" in ignorant and invalid ways. Most people understand the common and real definition of those two words and will not apply them to this film in any way at all.
Having said that, this movie is an amazing purely cinematic experience with no story, no characters, and no acting. I love the dynamic kinetic camerawork and editing. I love the brilliant visual optical effects and I love how it presents a reflective post-modern experience of the technology and act of filmmaking itself. It can be intense and exhilirating, then funny and playful, then dramatic and emotional.
Dziga Vertov was a matser filmmaker and I believe this to be his triumph!
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0 of 0 people found the above review helpful.: | | The grandfather of MTV, March 24, 2009 |
| | If nothing, this DVD is a proof that every modern editing technique is based on Soviet revolutionary silents, done almost 90 years ago.
Dziga Vertov - aka Deniz Kaufman - invented the whole new narrative form based on impulsive editing,rapid-fire cross-cutting, juhstapositioning simple shots to create methaphores and litotes and inject conotations into everyday`s images. Like many of the Soviet movies of the day, this film had an objective to prove that `revolutionary` cinema does not need clasic conventions, and maybe because of that it has fresh, independent, experimental breath and a lot of guts.
Vertov, at the age of 19, was promoted to became the chief editor for Soviet
agit-prop movies, position which he also used to experiment with form.
Dealing mostly with documentary footage, he managed to make it "alive", "exciting" and "agressive", spending months and months in his cutting room full of rats and dripping water. The results are two master-peaces which he made in 1920.tees:
"Kino -Eye" and "The Man With the Movie Camera" - both milestones in the movie history.
So,if you like melodramas and romantic comedies this is not your ticket.
But, if you want to see the grandfather of Jean-Luc Godard, Lars von Trier and MTV cutting style, you should check it out.
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1 of 1 people found the above review helpful.: |  3 stars out of 4, March 4, 2009 |
| | The Bottom Line:
A novel and interesting film whose main goal seems to be showing the audience everything that film is capable of, Man with a Movie Camera can feel a little slow (no plot, no characters, no dialogue) but it's a movie worth watching if you're interested in film.
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0 of 0 people found the above review helpful.: | | "Living Russia," or "The Man with a Camera", January 18, 2009 |
| | A well designed film by Dziga Vertov's that looks like a documentary than show the man and the city. We are constantly looking at fictional city where it is compared to the man with a camera. This film shot in black and white in 1929 is often compared to "Berlin: symphony of a great city" however this film is much more.
The real interest in the movie is how it is cut, and the choices of what to film. Every time you turn around you will see something not of other documentaries. What is real and what is film reality?
The voice over is just as good if not better than the original film as it describes how the film was made.
An added plus is just looking at the ancient technology. And then again how they are ahead of us in electric transportation.
This film requires several viewings.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
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