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. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A Russian movie classic
Dziga Vertov's 1929 film is a montage of one day in the life of the Russian people as told (or viewed) by a cameraman. Starting in a movie theater with the audience preparing to view the film, Vertov's cameraman takes them on a whirlwind tour of Russian life, from daybreak and visions of people sleeping on the streets and benches, interspersed with a young woman lying in her comfortable bed, to the everyday people working in the mines and factories.

It's a fascinating way to show the usage of the camera as a tool to document life, to display reality. In addition, the viewers get to see how a movie is made, with many shots of the cameraman hulking the huge camera from place to place, cranking the handle in order to get the desired sequence on film.

The version I saw also has a great score by composer Michael Nyman and written biographies of the Dziga Vertov and michael Nyman. A unique film that is a must-see for any cinophile.

The Visual Language of Creative Zeal and Activity
This 1929 silent film, "Man With The Movie Camera" by director Dziga Vertov, is one of the earliest examples of non-fiction wordless narrative film making. On this 1996 DVD edition, a viewer has the choice of experiencing the work accompanied by an informative audio essay from Yuri Tsivian, or with an accomplished musical score composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra.

"Man With The Movie Camera" shows a film maker in the process of documenting Soviet city life from a kind of utopian philosophical perspective. It describes the course of a typical day in the life of a wide range of the city's inhabitants. It considers such a life as full of possibilities for personal growth and emotional fulfillment, while also showing instances of an occasional personal setback. The footage was assembled from shots taken within Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, over a number of years, during the mid 1920's.

Throughout the film, the director conveys an almost manic sense of intelligence and enthusiasm regarding the range of subjects being portrayed. The subjects include: home life, people commuting within the city, workers operating complex machinery, the machinery itself, emergency workers, people both shopping and selling goods, images of all kinds of architecture, and the activities of people during their leisure hours. An astonishing variety of perspectives, for capturing these ordinary subjects, are shown within this sixty-eight minute work.

According to the audio essay by Yuri Tsivian, in the film's time and social context, it was used partly for entertainment and partly to further a particular ideology, or interpretation, of communal life within the Soviet Union. Vertov was a visionary, however, who always carried with him the poems of Walt Whitman, so this film might now be better considered as highly accomplished artistic work, rather than as an obsolete socialist manifesto.

"Man With The Movie Camera" is recommended viewing for all students of new media. It provides some first-rate examples of inspired film editing, along with creative uses of camera placement and innovative choices for camera motion. It holds up well to, and perhaps requires, repeated viewing for a full digestion of it's dense content.

Obviously inspired Reggio and Fricke
If you're a fan of Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke's the Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyatsi trio or the even more narrative-driven Baraka (Fricke), this hugely innovative, groundbreaking film is a MUST-SEE. You'll be amazed at the sort of filming and editing techniques these guys (and girl) employ during that period of time-- especially in comparison to what American cinema was like at the time.

Kino Eye
Dziga Vertov's Man With the Movie Camera (1929) is a narrative-free silent film plucked right from Stalinist Russia. In it, Vertov envisions a world as seen from the lens of a camera...marriages, divorces, deaths, accidents, transportation, daily work, sports, beach-going...everything is seen from the camera's eye view. The film is edited using a number of innovative techniques, and throughout the 68 minute assault on your visual sense, you as viewer basically BECOME the Man with the Movie Camera, but because we frequently see a man with a movie camera, it becomes multi-layered. We are the camera filming the filmer. Vertov believed that film would triumph as a medium free of the narratives of literature or the standards of the other arts, that it could be truly an exquisite tool of the proletariat. Interestingly, he was not given approval from the Stalinists who felt that his commitment to aesthetics went beyond his commitment to ideology.

One of Vertov's key themes is the comparison of human labor with machines. He wrote, ""I am kino-eye, I am mechanical eye, I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it. My path leads to the creation of a fresh perception of the world I decipher in a new way a world unknown to you."

Incidentally, a collection of Vertov's writings called The Kino Eye does exist in the world (1984).

A mixed bag
"Man with the Movie Camera" is a technically audacious film which chronicles daily life in Russia in the 1920's. Vertov's innovative use of rapid camera movement and split-second editing are often startling, at times dizzying to behold.

The images which Vertov juxtaposes are incongruous and entertaining. In one frame you see a dog sitting on a sidewalk. In another, you view people huddled together going to work and then a close-up of someone brushing their teeth. Many scenes feature machines, factories and buildings representing Russia's industrialization. There is a sense of detachment and dehumanization conveyed in the starkness of the concrete and steel structures you see emerging over cities as Russia modernizes.

Vertov introduced new and exciting techniques to the craft of filmmaking. Yet I found his use of these techniques excessive, self-indulgent, and distracting as if he were "showing off" his technical prowess instead of enhancing the story. Also, his repetition of the same or similar images dulls their impact.

Still "Man with the Movie Camera" is worth seeing. But it's a mixed bag. ... Read more

Description

Dziga Vertov, whose renegade approach to cinema is best remembered in the legendary "Man With the Movie Camera" and his series of Kino-Pravda newsreels, demonstrates his mastery of montage in this 1924 feature previously unseen in the United States. "Kino-Eye" (1924, 74 min.) is a fascinating film, not just for its aesthetic beauty and political significance, but for honestly documenting a society fresh from revolution, buoyed by idealism, ready to face the challenges of a difficult future. Also included on this DVD is "Three Songs of Lenin" (1934, 62 min.), Vertov's most personal work and the capstone of his career. The film reveals the Soviet leader as seen through the eyes of the people, represented by three songs. The exhilarating beauty of Vertov's images and the majesty of his filmmaking skills produced a film that The New York Times called "a work of unusual beauty and emotional exaltation." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Historically Interesting
As you might expect, a 70 year old communist propoganda film is not gripping entertainment.

The first "song" is the saga of how the revolution liberated a woman from the oppression and ignorance of Islam. A powerful topic that not many people would dare to tackle today. She goes from being imprisoned in her veil to a free woman, attending school, driving a tractor and learning to shoot a gun.

But as we know, communism was no utopia either.

Propaganda is also a form of art
Dziga Vertov monopolized the Soviet documentary scene together with his brothers and Lev Kuleshov. His movies have reached vast audiences all over the world, and The Man with the movie camera always gets a vote or two in "Greatest films ever made"-polls.

I really looked forward to seeing Vertov's early films, shot in 1923-24. Before that, film stock wasn't readily accessible to filmmakers in the Soviet union.

Vertov developed Kuleshov's theory of montage in those early years and put them to good use in the films featured on this DVD. The 6 Kino-eye shorts was a pioneering venture into the Soviet experience. Vertov sought to bring witness to how the word of communism was spread throughout the countryside and in the cities. If this meant tampering a bit with the footage he shot, well - so be it!

The protagonists of the first three films are "the Young pioneers", a group of young teens who help out wherever they can. They help widows harvesting the crop and old people with shopping and cleaning. They also urge people to buy their meat and veggies at the Communist food market and not at private grocers.(We also follow the meat backwards from the counter to the cow, would you believe!)

The do-gooders still find time to collect the children in the village and explain what communism is all about and request that they join the Communist party.

Later, there are intercut scenes from everyday life, work and leisure. Great stuff. Enthusiasm runs through the footage, this is a young man using the camera as his gun, shooting at will, and getting some marvellous treasure from his effort.

Historically, you can't even begin to measure the value of Kino eye. These people are real, this stuff happened. It's a closed chapter in history, and will probably never be repeated. Propaganda, sure, but also a work of art.

Also on this DVD, we get the film "Three songs for Lenin" (1934) What a world of difference 10 years made for Vertov. This nearly unwatchable mish-mash of ugly close-ups, rabble-rousing, and Stalin-style knee-jerking should not be shown. In theory constructed like a three-part symphony, it's a hopeless jumble of badly edited scenes. The first part, about a Moslem girl who doesn't have to cover her face anymore is the most lifeless documentary I've ever seen. The second part introduces the life and death-cult of Lenin, and history has not been kind to it. It's teary-eyed communist symbolism, with endless scenes of mourners standing around Lenin's body. Endless..The last part looks like it was made with someone putting a gun to Vertov's head. You can almost imagine the Moscow processes lurking just out of sight.

5 stars for the Kino-eye films, the Lenin film is an atrocity that Vertov should have been able to avoid making. But then, maybe he didn't have a choice. Or maybe his enthusiasm had run to ground in the bureaucratic and political hell that Soviet had become in the 1930ies.

Two Cheers for Vertov
Vertov's work is interesting more for its documentary achievement than for its claims as "pure cinema" (a term that is quite meaningless 70 years after it first raised a few eyebrows). Otis Ferguson had the last word to say on the subject of Three Songs About Lenin in his essay "Artists Among the Flickers" in 1934. But Vertov's work is startling to watch today, now that the Revolution had been discredited and that Lenin is universally excoriated. But the feel of that time, the sense of fervent optimism, of a society breaking new ground and - seemingly - finding new solutions to old problems, is captured hypnotically by Vertov in Kino-Eye. It's no accudent that another of his famous films was called 'Enthusiasm'. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A Russian movie classic
Dziga Vertov's 1929 film is a montage of one day in the life of the Russian people as told (or viewed) by a cameraman. Starting in a movie theater with the audience preparing to view the film, Vertov's cameraman takes them on a whirlwind tour of Russian life, from daybreak and visions of people sleeping on the streets and benches, interspersed with a young woman lying in her comfortable bed, to the everyday people working in the mines and factories.

It's a fascinating way to show the usage of the camera as a tool to document life, to display reality. In addition, the viewers get to see how a movie is made, with many shots of the cameraman hulking the huge camera from place to place, cranking the handle in order to get the desired sequence on film.

The version I saw also has a great score by composer Michael Nyman and written biographies of the Dziga Vertov and michael Nyman. A unique film that is a must-see for any cinophile.

The Visual Language of Creative Zeal and Activity
This 1929 silent film, "Man With The Movie Camera" by director Dziga Vertov, is one of the earliest examples of non-fiction wordless narrative film making. On this 1996 DVD edition, a viewer has the choice of experiencing the work accompanied by an informative audio essay from Yuri Tsivian, or with an accomplished musical score composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra.

"Man With The Movie Camera" shows a film maker in the process of documenting Soviet city life from a kind of utopian philosophical perspective. It describes the course of a typical day in the life of a wide range of the city's inhabitants. It considers such a life as full of possibilities for personal growth and emotional fulfillment, while also showing instances of an occasional personal setback. The footage was assembled from shots taken within Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, over a number of years, during the mid 1920's.

Throughout the film, the director conveys an almost manic sense of intelligence and enthusiasm regarding the range of subjects being portrayed. The subjects include: home life, people commuting within the city, workers operating complex machinery, the machinery itself, emergency workers, people both shopping and selling goods, images of all kinds of architecture, and the activities of people during their leisure hours. An astonishing variety of perspectives, for capturing these ordinary subjects, are shown within this sixty-eight minute work.

According to the audio essay by Yuri Tsivian, in the film's time and social context, it was used partly for entertainment and partly to further a particular ideology, or interpretation, of communal life within the Soviet Union. Vertov was a visionary, however, who always carried with him the poems of Walt Whitman, so this film might now be better considered as highly accomplished artistic work, rather than as an obsolete socialist manifesto.

"Man With The Movie Camera" is recommended viewing for all students of new media. It provides some first-rate examples of inspired film editing, along with creative uses of camera placement and innovative choices for camera motion. It holds up well to, and perhaps requires, repeated viewing for a full digestion of it's dense content.

Obviously inspired Reggio and Fricke
If you're a fan of Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke's the Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyatsi trio or the even more narrative-driven Baraka (Fricke), this hugely innovative, groundbreaking film is a MUST-SEE. You'll be amazed at the sort of filming and editing techniques these guys (and girl) employ during that period of time-- especially in comparison to what American cinema was like at the time.

Kino Eye
Dziga Vertov's Man With the Movie Camera (1929) is a narrative-free silent film plucked right from Stalinist Russia. In it, Vertov envisions a world as seen from the lens of a camera...marriages, divorces, deaths, accidents, transportation, daily work, sports, beach-going...everything is seen from the camera's eye view. The film is edited using a number of innovative techniques, and throughout the 68 minute assault on your visual sense, you as viewer basically BECOME the Man with the Movie Camera, but because we frequently see a man with a movie camera, it becomes multi-layered. We are the camera filming the filmer. Vertov believed that film would triumph as a medium free of the narratives of literature or the standards of the other arts, that it could be truly an exquisite tool of the proletariat. Interestingly, he was not given approval from the Stalinists who felt that his commitment to aesthetics went beyond his commitment to ideology.

One of Vertov's key themes is the comparison of human labor with machines. He wrote, ""I am kino-eye, I am mechanical eye, I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it. My path leads to the creation of a fresh perception of the world I decipher in a new way a world unknown to you."

Incidentally, a collection of Vertov's writings called The Kino Eye does exist in the world (1984).

A mixed bag
"Man with the Movie Camera" is a technically audacious film which chronicles daily life in Russia in the 1920's. Vertov's innovative use of rapid camera movement and split-second editing are often startling, at times dizzying to behold.

The images which Vertov juxtaposes are incongruous and entertaining. In one frame you see a dog sitting on a sidewalk. In another, you view people huddled together going to work and then a close-up of someone brushing their teeth. Many scenes feature machines, factories and buildings representing Russia's industrialization. There is a sense of detachment and dehumanization conveyed in the starkness of the concrete and steel structures you see emerging over cities as Russia modernizes.

Vertov introduced new and exciting techniques to the craft of filmmaking. Yet I found his use of these techniques excessive, self-indulgent, and distracting as if he were "showing off" his technical prowess instead of enhancing the story. Also, his repetition of the same or similar images dulls their impact.

Still "Man with the Movie Camera" is worth seeing. But it's a mixed bag. ... Read more