Review of Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Matt T — 22 Nov 2015

Often categorized as a documentary out of a lack of a better description, Man with a Movie Camera is thrillingly bizarre, daringly experimental, and undeniably influential. There's some semblance of a narrative involving a man with a camera (appropriately) and some of his crew members, but aside from that, the film as a whole is more focused on displaying the endless array of editing tricks and groundbreaking cinematography that Vertov has dreamed up.

As a result, it's filled to the brim with original visuals, never lingering on one image for too long before cutting away to something seemingly unrelated before going back to the central meta-concept of an audience watching the film play out before them.

It's a strange sit, but there's nothing else like it in the history of cinema.