"Man With A Movie Camera" (1929) by Dziga Vertov
- 9 years ago
Man with a Movie Camera (Russian: Человек с киноаппаратом (Chelovek s kinoapparatom), Ukrainian: Людина з кіноапаратом (Liudyna z Kinoaparatom) —sometimes called A Man with a Movie Camera, The Man with the Movie Camera, The Man with a Camera, The Man with the Kinocamera, or Living Russia) is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors,[2] by Soviet director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova.
Vertov's feature film, produced by the film studio VUFKU, presents urban life in the Soviet cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow and Odessa.[3] From dawn to dusk Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life. To the extent that it can be said to have "characters," they are the cameramen of the title, the film editor, and the modern Soviet Union they discover and present in the film.
This film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques Vertov invents, deploys or develops, such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop motion animations and a self-reflexive style (at one point it features a split screen tracking shot; the sides have opposite Dutch angles).
In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted Man with a Movie Camera the 8th best film ever made. In 2014 Sight and Sound also named the film the best documentary film of all time.
Directed by Dziga Vertov
Written by Dziga Vertov
Cinematography Mikhail Kaufman
Release dates 8 January 1929
Running time 68 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Silent film
Vertov's feature film, produced by the film studio VUFKU, presents urban life in the Soviet cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow and Odessa.[3] From dawn to dusk Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life. To the extent that it can be said to have "characters," they are the cameramen of the title, the film editor, and the modern Soviet Union they discover and present in the film.
This film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques Vertov invents, deploys or develops, such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop motion animations and a self-reflexive style (at one point it features a split screen tracking shot; the sides have opposite Dutch angles).
In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted Man with a Movie Camera the 8th best film ever made. In 2014 Sight and Sound also named the film the best documentary film of all time.
Directed by Dziga Vertov
Written by Dziga Vertov
Cinematography Mikhail Kaufman
Release dates 8 January 1929
Running time 68 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Silent film