jmh-55237 Taking place in the year 1929 definitely gave Vertov a chance to show how powerful a movie camera can in fact be. The documentary film, Man with a Movie Camera utilizes close up shots of the environment and people and other film techniques that were rarely seen being used during the time period. This gave the film a huge edge on popularity when it was released to the public. Vertov's use of metaphors within film and attempting seemingly dangerous stunts for the sake of the film also helped a lot with this turning point in the film industry. Man with a Movie Camera, even though it is a documentary film, it is a first prominent portrayal of reality film in its own way. The film attempts to capture every aspect of life for the average working class person(s) living in Russia. It was the first experience for the viewers of the film to watch themselves. This gave the film a high amount of relatability for the viewers in Russia during the times. There was even a scene in the film that was showing a theater full of people watching the film. Vertov gave the film industry a whole different point of view that has never been seen this prominently before. Vertov even added scenes such as a real divorce or birth taking place in Russia. In order to get some of the best scenes for the film, Vertov would put the camera in places where it was too dangerous for him to be standing behind the camera, or he would have dangerous stunts be performed for the sake of film. For example, when we see the camera man climb the sketchy ladder on the side of the brick structure just to get an over shot of the city of Moscow. Another example is when he placed the camera on the center of train tracks so that the viewer is able to watch a train arrive and leave from an under the train point of view. To get in even deeper on just how much Vertov wanted to display point of view in the film, he experimented with some unique camera movements. One part of the movie, the camera was shooting a close up of a person's eyes. The eyes would then abruptly swing to look in a specific direction as the camera would then flip to an over shot of a city in Russia and pan the view in the same direction as the eyes would have looked. This unique experiment and technique was very interesting to me in that Vertov would even think of doing something like that in such an early experimental film. He also performed stunts like the camera on a tripod 'dancing' around utilizing a combination of different shots, and backwards film when he showed the chess pieces setting themselves back up on the board. In the end, Man with a Movie Camera was a huge success in experimental films and gave the world of film and movies a whole new direction to branch off of. By creating a documentary, I would strongly say that Vertov achieved his goal of trying to show just how powerful a camera can be. He broke barriers and raised the standard for hundreds of thousands of films made after 1929. All I am really curious at this point is how film guidelines were brought about legally. It seems a bit dangerous to me when Vertov was filming things such as divorce and birth in public. Nowadays that would be unheard of. Not even modern reality TV gets half that real. Maybe the camera is really more powerful than we think.

daitran199980 There are many scenes that are stunning! But here I just mention some outstanding scenes: -The Opening: The movie began with the cinema/theater and audiences waited the film that would start in few minutes. They were very happy. -The Sleeping Girl and the Running Train: Then, the girl who was sleeping was shown, and we can see the poster which showed 2 men who smiled and had the action like they want you being quiet. That means something bad would happen. Next, the running train was shown. It's very fast and then the girl woke up and scared and got dressed quickly. She wanted to escape. Why? The poster and the train were shown again. So I think the train is the government and the sleeping girl is the victim. -The Workers: In this scene, many workers were working in the factory. There was the man who was climbing to the stack of the factory. He was tired. And I knew how heavy suffering they got? -The Eyes: The movement of this scene is very fast. The life in the city, the population, the emotion of people. One old woman was angry, one was happy. Could you be happy if you live in the suffering country? -The Married Couples: There are some couples who booked to marry. They're happy and their future could be better. On the other hand, the funeral was shown. I don't understand why the director used this scene? May be he wanted to show that the death was the normal event in life? Then, the baby was born, the mother was happy and her baby would be the hope of the family and the country. -The barber-shop: Some rich girls at the Barber-shop. While they were relax, some poor girls work hardly in the factory, but they were happy. Although you're poor or rich, you must be happy because it's the hope of this life. -Sports: The holiday came. Rich people went to the beach. Poor people had the nice day with their friends. They played sport, went to the bar and enjoyed themselves after the tired days. You know, the government never lets them give up, because they have the powerful will. Man With A Camera Movie isn't only the normal documentary film, it's the powerful and wonderful story through the eye of people.

Richard Walker Whilst films showing life in big cities were not exactly rare during the 1920s the inventive style David Kaufman brought to "A Man with a Movie Camera" was so unique and left such an impression that to this day it is still seen as one of the greatest documentaries ever made.Kaufman filmed the picture under the name Dziga Vertov, which translates as spinning top, nicely summing up the frenetic editing and jumping of the shots in the film. Kaufman was no fan of the narrative film feature calling it "the Opium of the people…long live life as it is", which is exactly what he did, preferring to shoot life as he saw it.The film is a city symphony showing the events one day except Kaufman actually filmed it in three cities over a period of four years. Kaufman succeeds in making daily life look thrilling; it's frantic pace bringing a high level of excitement. At the time, audiences must have been thrown off by the editing (the shot length averaging 2.3 seconds was unheard of in 1929). Kaufman essentially makes editing the star. In one sequence we are even shown the editing process, which he combines with still shots to great effect.Adding to the excitement is the regular footage of "the man with a camera". Many of the shots are of footage being taken and great lengths were gone to in order to capture some images. Balancing on a car, lying on train tracks as a locomotive approaches and hovering over a waterfall just to name three. Many versions are available with varying musical accompaniment. The version reviewed was with a score by the cinematic orchestra, which flowed beautifully and helped bring character to the images.It's fair to say that this will not be for everyone, somewhat ironically given our attraction to fast edited movie scenes and mobile phones meaning everybody seems to film every aspect of every day. But no talk or true story would put most people off; but go along for the ride and you'll enjoy it.Plus 1 if: You are a firm admirer of film history and editing Minus 4 if: You prefer your footage of daily like to include grumpy catsthearbiterofgoodtaste

kurosawakira I wrote this in April 2012, and still subscribe to every word.Having never seen this before, I was expecting something that after 80 years would seem piffling, banal, trashy and insipid. Instead, I saw a film full of so many visual ideas I'm still in awe, presenting the one idea I personally think is the most important one in film.I don't like to think of this as a film as much as a notebook or canvas of ideas. Together they don't really seem to work that well, but individually they're earth-shattering and have been used later to great effect. Sure, the presentation is a bit too explanatory for my taste when it comes to the metaphors, but that's what 80 years does.What is that one image, then? Unfortunately it's repeated a bit too often to benumb its potential, but it's the earliest effective use of it that I've seen — it's the iconic image of the reflection of a human eye in the lens. That image, for me, tells what film is all about in the end: the camera is the eye that not only perceives but creates. It might sound simple nowadays, and certainly wasn't obscure even back then, but it's such a transparent and elegant statement – save the repetition – that I will always carry it with me.