Vertov belonged to a group called the kinoks whos ideal was to deliver facts to the people. They believed that documentary film were a more righteous and deserving type of cinema. Vertov strove to deliver a definte pro-soviet Russia message in "TheMan With The Movie Camera".
I could only imagine what a controversial film this must have been not only because of the nature of the filmed subjects but Vertov's brave experimentation with cinematic techniques. I found that his use of varied cinematic techniques what kept me most interested in the film. I noticed examples of freeze frames, split screens,fast and slow motion, close-ups, and double exposure. He portrayed aspects of indutrialization and highlighted the benefits and prosperity that could be brought about through labour. I noticed how images of the bourgeois seemed generally distant from the images of the industrialization. This demonstrates a jutting difference in the classes which supports the message that Russia needed to move away from the idle lifestyle it was living.
It was very interesting that he choose to capture very intimate aspects of people lives, such as the birth of a newborn or when the women was getting dressed. I thought that was a very, very daring step on Vertov's part. However, I noticed that many of the images seemed to relate to one another which delivered "mini-messages" throughout the film.
Overall, I thought this film would have proven a little to severe and intense for the audience he was presenting to at the time. I would imagine that the bulk of the viewers would be more appalled then enthralled by Vertov's "The Man With The Movie Camera."
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I think you'll find when we re-examine a few of the scenes tomorrow that for Vertov his technique and subject-matter are remarkably synonymous. In many ways this is what we might call a "meta-film," that is a "film about a film." And for him it seems that the man with the camera is both capturing and living "life as it is supposed to be lived."
ReplyDeleteI really like the Alloy Orchestra soundtrack that accompanies this edition of the film--but one potential challenge involved with it is that it tends to cover up some of the important contrasts Vertov is trying to establish between his presentation of the Soviet working class and the more idle, bourgeois NEP-types who we frequently see interspersed. It's good you picked up on these differences--because on an initial viewing it's easy for everything just to sort of wash all together and seem like a single, general impression--whereas he really does seem to be trying to differentiate between certain things (e.g., movement vs. stasis, sober naivety vs. drunken decadence, physical exercise vs. idle leisure).
And you're right to suspect that this film would have been a bomb at the Soviet box-office. But it has proved to be one of the enduring classics of world avant-garde cinema.