Man with a Movie Camera: Difference between revisions

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'''''Man with the Movie Camera''''' is an experimental [[1929]] [[silent film|silent]] [[documentary film]] by [[Rusia]]n director [[Dziga Vertov]]. The film follows a cameraman around various cities, intercutting his footage with footage of him filming and footage of a woman editing; it features a number of cinematic techniques sometimes thought to have been created later. For instance, it features (among others), [[double exposure]], [[fast motion]], [[slow motion]], [[freeze frame]]s, [[jump cut]]s, [[split screen]]s, [[Dutch angle]]s, extreme [[closeup]]s, [[tracking shot]]s, footage played backwards, and a self-reflexive storyline (at one point it features a split screen tracking shot; the sides have opposite Dutch angles).

The film has an unabashedly [[art film]] bent and emphasizes that film can go ''anywhere'', for instance superimposing a shot of a cameraman setting up his camera atop a second, mountainous camera; or superimposing a cameramn inside a beer glass; or filming a woman getting out of bed and getting dressed; or even filming a different woman giving birth, the baby being taken away to be bathed.

In addition to its unabashedly [[art film]] bent; the film features a few obvious stagings such as the scene of the woman getting out of bed and getting dressed (cameras at the time were fairly bulky and loud, and not surreptitious) and the shot of the chess pieces being swept to the center of the board (a shot which was spliced in backwards, causing the pieces to expand outward and stand into position). Vertov was criticized for both the stagings and the stark experimentation of the film, possibly as a result of Vertov's frequent assailing of fiction film as a new "opiate of the masses."

Vertov's message about the prevalence and unobtrusiveness of filming was not yet true--cameras might have been able to go anywhere, but not without being noticed; they were too large to be hidden easily, and too noisy to remain hidden anyway. To get footage using a hidden camera, Vertov and his brother [[Mikhail Kaufman]] had to distract the subject with something else even louder than the camera filming them.

The film, originally released in 1929, was accompanied on site by various music; it was re-released in 1996 with a new soundtrack performed by the [[Alloy Orchestra]], based on notes left by Vertov.

In addition to its unabashedly [[artThe film]] bent; the filmalso features a few obvious stagings such as the scene of the woman getting out of bed and getting dressed (cameras at the time were fairly bulky and loud, and not surreptitious) and the shot of the chess pieces being swept to the center of the board (a shot which was spliced in backwards, causing the pieces to expand outward and stand into position). VertovThe film was criticized for both the stagings and theits stark experimentation of the film, possibly as a result of Vertovits director's frequent assailing of fiction film as a new "opiate of the masses."

The film, originally released in 1929, was accompanied onin sitetheaters bywith variouslive music; it was re-released in 1996 with a new soundtrack performed by the [[Alloy Orchestra]], based on notes left by Vertov. The original footage was silent; the sound effects (such as sirens, babies crying, crowd noise, etc.) were added afterwards.