Man with a Movie Camera struck me as a wonderful base of experimental film that I would be surprised if it hadn’t inspired some work somewhere. The stated point of the film was to try and develop a universal language across the world having to do with film, which it certainly achieved, at least in some respect.
The fact that the movie was basically a sort of cataloguing of everyday Russian life that, without the sound it so desires, contains no actual Russian Language, this provides the possibility for everyone to understand what is going on and bring everyone together in a purely visual experience, minus the orchestra of course. The lack of sound communication is made up for by the use of symbols found throughout the film, a personal love of mine. For instance, the use of stop motion photography to portray the camera as a living organism seems to make it a character in the story of the film, watching the world and showing it back to it.
Also, Vertov shows the power of cinema by bringing in another symbol, the editor herself. He shows her cutting and splicing different pieces of film, as well as having parts in the film in which it slows down and stops in succession. Showing that he and the editor ultimately have power over what you can see. This is also similar to the famous “eye of the camera lens;” it’s almost like a sort of symbol of power over the viewer.
Ultimately, I thought that Vertov was a filmmaker beyond his own time, what with the notes detailing the intended music for the film and the types of symbols he used in it.
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