Context and Craft: Man With a Movie Camera (Человек C Kиноаппаратом) 1929
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Country: USSR (modern Russia and Ukraine)
Production Company: Dovzhenko Film Studios
Year of Release: 1929
Director: Dziga Vertov
Writer: Dziga Vertov (Since there is no actual Script, the film instead credits Vertov with the “Scenario”
Cast/Crew: Dziga Vertov, Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Production Company: Dovzhenko Film Studios
Year of Release: 1929
Director: Dziga Vertov
Writer: Dziga Vertov (Since there is no actual Script, the film instead credits Vertov with the “Scenario”
Cast/Crew: Dziga Vertov, Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Synopsis
Man with a Movie Camera does not have a traditional script or story. The film is more about showing off new cinematic techniques and showing the wonders of the Soviet City.
The Film
Dziga Vertov was part of a group called the Kinoks, whose main goal was to abolish all forms of film-making that weren’t documentaries, because anything that wasn’t a documentary was merely “Opiate for the Masses’ (Tsivian 2004, p.103) The main goal of the film is to catch “life unawares” and to break the viewing audiences perception of what a film could be or could do.
With this goal in mind the film began production in around 1924 and although the film makes out like it was only filmed in Odessa, it was in fact also filmed in Kiev and Moscow, and according to some sources, also Kharkiv (Devaux 1990, p.55). It took 3 years to film using a very small crew that consisted of Vertov himself as director and editor, Mikhail Kaufman as the main “Actor” (Kaufman, Vertov’s brother, is seen throughout the film setting up and filming various shots) and cameraman, and Elizaveta Svilova as assistant editor and another “actress” (Svilova is seen editing parts of the film).
The film was released in January 1929 in Kiev then shown in April of the same year in Moscow. It then after that spread across Europe during the summer. Its last known destination was New York in the spring of 1930 (Devaux 1990, p.55). When the film was initially released it received extremely mixed reactions. Throughout Europe, in many underground and independent cinemas, the film was praised for its experimentation and for breaking the usual mould of film of the time. However, many in Europe also greatly criticised the film, most notably many members of the British Documentary movement which saw the film as failing to achieve its initial goal of viewing “life unawares” as many of the shots in the film are either staged or the subjects are clearly aware that they are being filmed (Tsivian 2004, p.103).
Within the Soviet Union it was even more greatly criticised. Much had changed since the films initial production, which had been a time of great change and experimentation. By the time of its release in 1929, Soviet filmmaking was no longer expected to be experimental but to fit into a new goal, which was now “Artistic Expression that is intelligible to the millions” (Tsivian 2004, p.104). Because of this, Vertov would no longer have the same amount of freedom to create as he had before.
It was not till many years later that the film was seen as a masterpiece, the film is now being praised by many for not only what it was trying to achieve, but also because of the ground-breaking techniques that are shown off in the film that are now taken for granted, such as tracking shots, slow motion, jump cuts, stop motion animation, close ups and many more. The film has influenced the careers of many film-makers, perhaps most notably the French Film-maker Jean Luc Goddard, who is also an extremely experimental film-maker.
The film is now included in the BFI’s Sight & Sound list as the 8th best film ever made and is included in ever edition of the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”.
Man with a Movie Camera does not have a traditional script or story. The film is more about showing off new cinematic techniques and showing the wonders of the Soviet City.
The Film
Dziga Vertov was part of a group called the Kinoks, whose main goal was to abolish all forms of film-making that weren’t documentaries, because anything that wasn’t a documentary was merely “Opiate for the Masses’ (Tsivian 2004, p.103) The main goal of the film is to catch “life unawares” and to break the viewing audiences perception of what a film could be or could do.
With this goal in mind the film began production in around 1924 and although the film makes out like it was only filmed in Odessa, it was in fact also filmed in Kiev and Moscow, and according to some sources, also Kharkiv (Devaux 1990, p.55). It took 3 years to film using a very small crew that consisted of Vertov himself as director and editor, Mikhail Kaufman as the main “Actor” (Kaufman, Vertov’s brother, is seen throughout the film setting up and filming various shots) and cameraman, and Elizaveta Svilova as assistant editor and another “actress” (Svilova is seen editing parts of the film).
The film was released in January 1929 in Kiev then shown in April of the same year in Moscow. It then after that spread across Europe during the summer. Its last known destination was New York in the spring of 1930 (Devaux 1990, p.55). When the film was initially released it received extremely mixed reactions. Throughout Europe, in many underground and independent cinemas, the film was praised for its experimentation and for breaking the usual mould of film of the time. However, many in Europe also greatly criticised the film, most notably many members of the British Documentary movement which saw the film as failing to achieve its initial goal of viewing “life unawares” as many of the shots in the film are either staged or the subjects are clearly aware that they are being filmed (Tsivian 2004, p.103).
Within the Soviet Union it was even more greatly criticised. Much had changed since the films initial production, which had been a time of great change and experimentation. By the time of its release in 1929, Soviet filmmaking was no longer expected to be experimental but to fit into a new goal, which was now “Artistic Expression that is intelligible to the millions” (Tsivian 2004, p.104). Because of this, Vertov would no longer have the same amount of freedom to create as he had before.
It was not till many years later that the film was seen as a masterpiece, the film is now being praised by many for not only what it was trying to achieve, but also because of the ground-breaking techniques that are shown off in the film that are now taken for granted, such as tracking shots, slow motion, jump cuts, stop motion animation, close ups and many more. The film has influenced the careers of many film-makers, perhaps most notably the French Film-maker Jean Luc Goddard, who is also an extremely experimental film-maker.
The film is now included in the BFI’s Sight & Sound list as the 8th best film ever made and is included in ever edition of the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”.
By Barnaby Falck
Further Reading
Devaux, Frederique. Analyse D'une Oeuvre "L'homme À La Caméra", Dziga Vertov, 1929. (Paris: J. Vrin, 2009.)
Roberts, Graham. The Man with the Movie Camera. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000.)
Tsivian, Yuri. Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties. (Gemona, Udine: Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto, 2004.)
Roberts, Graham. The Man with the Movie Camera. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000.)
Tsivian, Yuri. Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties. (Gemona, Udine: Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto, 2004.)