The Man With The Movie Camera Analysis

The Man With The ikon photographic photographic television camera AnalysisDziga Vertovs 1929 accept, The Man with the Movie television camera, documents sustenance in a Russian city while also telling a story just about filmmaking. The film is a dazzling mix of imagery and technique, inviting the viewer to confabulate the city through and through the eyes of the cameraman, and to share his perception of the until nowts and visions that he encounters through the filmmaking process. This review will examine the films narrative line and its inherent themes, its subprogram of genre and generic traditions, the pictic techniques employed and the effectiveness of its approach to the material.At the beginning of the film, The Man with the Movie Camera defines itself as something out of the ordinary. In the opening credits, the title cards refer to the film as an taste in the cinematic communication of visible events, executed without the upkeep of intertitles, without the aid of a scenario, without the aid of a theater (Vertov). From the outset, the film distinguishes itself by aiming to look the pure essence of film-to document and record human life and natural process in the form of moving pictures. The Man with the Movie Camera is expose into four sections, and is book-ended by imagery relating to film and filmmaking. It opens in a cinema and closes with the lens of a camera shutting its eye.From a narrative perspective, the film is different from the norm in that it has no typical protagonist or antagonist. If a chief(prenominal) character had to be defined, he would be the cameraman, with his main supporting character being the editor. The city and its inhabitants as a incorporated entity also be observe a major character in the film, masking how they interact with each other in the daily routine of work, comfort and leisure through the perspective of the filmmaker. The movie is predominantly concerned with depiction reality, rather than drama tized fiction or re-creations of historic events.The films story is constructed in an illicit narrative panache, but is brought together through the recurring theme of the camera and the filmmaker. The events in the film take place over the course of a day, and although Vertov experiments with geographical and temporal continuity, the audience is given enough information to cull together the plot. Upon first viewing, this plot may not be totally clear, but as Roberts confirms, The Man with the Movie Camera does have a plot (1). Each section of the film covers the different parts of the day (work, rest and leisure), and through this, Vertov establishes images which provide the optical language which is brought into play end-to-end the length of the film. By layering this imagery through editing and montage, and combining them with the underlying story of the filmmaker and his camera, the overarching narrative is tied together. Roberts explains that all human life is here from b irth to death via childhood, marriage, divorce, work, rest and play (2).This avant-garde style of filmic storytelling became popular in the form of the city symphony genre. Dimendberg explains that the genre encompasses about twenty titles and relies heavily upon montage to represent a crosswise of life in the modern metropolis (109). In adhering to this genre, The Man with the Movie Camera does away with the traditional trappings of the documentary and becomes something different. there is no narration, no conventional narrative or plot elements, but rather a succession of rhythmic imagery detailing the inner workings of a city. Graf describes the genres structure as having a dawn to dusk strategy in the search for a pure film form (79).Vertov employed numerous cinematic techniques to achieve the incredible momentum of imagery found in the film. These techniques included split-screen, slow motion, freeze-frame, fast motion, and stop-motion animation. The stop-motion animation s equence where the camera seems to come alive and walk around on its tripod remains startling even today. When juxtaposed with the everyday motions of human life which the film presents, it becomes clear that the camera itself has a life of its own. It has its own perception of events separate from that of the filmmaker, and separate from that of the audience. The variety of techniques used makes the film a showcase of the power of cinema and its talent to transform everyday life into something completely different, with its own rhythm and hotshot of unpredictability.The editing in The Man with the Movie Camera is one of the films strongest points. There is a segment which contrasts challenging footage of a birth with that of a funeral. As one life ends, another begins. Similarly, there is a scene of marriage, with elated atmosphere and smiling faces. In contrast, Vertov inserts a somber scene of a couple signing their divorce papers. These binary oppositions are ubiquitous end- to-end the film, with juxtapositions between work and play, play and rest, man and machine, and many others.The musical mop up also brings much life and energy to the film. The repeated themes complement the visual language that Vertov established. According to Feldman, Vertov carefully planned the musical score and may well have intended the work to be made as the first Soviet sound film (qtd in Barsam 74). The synchronicity between sound effects and onscreen action creates an impressive and exciting mosaic of phone and imagery.While the film is certainly a product of its time, it holds up astonishingly well in modern day. Barsam states that the film was well-received in the domestic and multinational press (74). The inventive narrative construction and the multitude of cinematic techniques position the film genuinely ahead of its time. Vertov was successful in his attempt at documenting Russian life in a city without many of the everyday elements typically found in documenta ries. He managed to show an impressive cross-section of Russian society, by following the daily lives of different classes of people. The Man with the Movie Camera remains a wonderful piece of experimental cinema, and offers a fascinating view of life as it was in the Soviet 1920s.