Man With a Movie Camera (1929)

Director: Dziga Vertov Cinematographer: Mikhail Kaufman

Vertov’s filmic manifesto, produced by the studio VUFKU, presents a utopian image of urban life in the Soviet cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow and Odessa. Vertov proclaimed the film an experiment, and it is made without actors, intertitles, a script or sets, showing from dawn to dusk, Soviet citizens at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life. A tour de force in theoretical cinema, the film is only a documentary by material and more a summary of the themes of the ‘kinoki’ movement, the image of the worker perfect as the machine and that of the filmmaker as socially as useful as the factory worker. The culmination of a decade of audacious and controversial work in non fiction filmmaking for Vertov, The Man With the Movie Camera is one of the of the most unusual works in cinema history and was seen as hopelessly out of date on release thanks to its utopian ideals around city living, but for those with an open mind to different filmmaking techniques it can be a memorable viewing experience. For all the criticism and its avant-garde ambitions, it is one of the few silent films that strongly conveys a sense of everyday life in Soviet Russia.

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Buy or Rent (watch online)
Dziga Vertov: The Man with the Movie Camera and Other Newly-Restored Works [Blu-ray]
DVD
The Cinematic Orchestra 2003 Soundtrack [Vinyl]
A Beginner’s Guide To Cinema (Vol. 1) – 7-DVD Box Set ( Metropolis / Steamboat Bill, Jr. / Man with a Movie Camera / Umberto D / Seven Samurai / My Li [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import – Australia ]

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Lists:

• No. 127 on The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films of All-Time (2019)
• No. 8 on Sight & Sound’s Critics 250 Greatest Films of All Time (2012)

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Directed by Dziga Vertov
Produced by VUFKU
Written by Dziga Vertov
Cinematography Mikhail Kaufman
Edited by Elizaveta Svilova
Running time 68 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Silent film, No intertitles