Review of Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Daniel D — 27 Nov 2009

Dziga Vertov announces right from the beginning that his film will be an experiment; it will not include inter-titles, actors, scenario (story), or sets. He isn?t kidding, this is a non narrative film made with a variety of camera techniques.

Basically, Vertov went out and filmed a whole lot of random stuff throughout the cities of Moscow, Odessa, and Kiev and had it edited together in a variety of innovative ways. The word ?editing? is perhaps a bit of an understatement, this was put together in ways that would make Michael Bay blush, this is a montage of flash frames, freeze frames, fast-motion time compressions, and strange camera angles.

Some of these tricks feel like profound statements about life and community, but a fair number of them seem like little more than cinematic masturbation. I have trouble fully embracing this, because without all the trickery this material would be about as interesting as paint drying.

But on the other hand, the way this is put together is compelling, it?s got a definite rhythm to it and it?s paved the way for a lot that?s come. Part of me wants to call this virtuoso filmmaking, and part of me wants to call it pretentious bullshit.

Eh, I?ll split the difference.