Man with a Movie Camera

1929 [RUSSIAN]

Documentary / Music

11
IMDb Rating 8.3/10 10 29985 30K

soviet union odessa, ukraine black and white montage silent film cameraman

Plot summary

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

Director

Dziga Vertov Photo
Dziga Vertov

Top cast

Elizaveta Svilova Photo
Elizaveta Svilova as Woman editing film
Mikhail Kaufman Photo
Mikhail Kaufman as The Cameraman
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
616.2 MB
960*720
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles ru  
24 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 4
1.12 GB
1440*1080
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles ru  
24 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 30

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Matt_Layden 8 / 10

Study This Film

The Man With The Movie Camera shows fragments of life transformed into film. It was a film about a film and a kaleidoscope of daily life of people in Russia.The film is constantly moving, showing snippets of people in this town and how they live. The music, which was composed by Dziga himself, is fast paced and flows perfectly with the images.At one scene the film begins to slow down, much like a train does when it arrives at a station, the music that accompanies these images begins to slow down as well, until we come to a complete stop. The film then transforms into still images, only to start up again. Dziga even uses the train as a way to connect the pace of the film and music to the still images and back again. The train slowly arrives and departs, the music slowly stops and starts up, the images become still and then back to the quick paced editing.It's a master of cinematic techniques; the way the film was shot was very dangerous. The camera operator stands in a moving carriage while he films, supported by nothing. It's easy to see the influences this film has on what we see today, many people use this quick editing style and we've become accustomed to it. Just look at films like Run Lola Run or your average Michael Bay blockbuster.
Reviewed by univibe 8 / 10

Very touching

I'm writing about the Cinematic Orchestra version. It might possibly be the music, but somehow, in the first half of this film, I get overwhelmed by sadness. To the point where I feel I'm gonna start crying. Why? All we see are mundane scenes of everyday life. My daughter told me she has the same reaction. This must be a statement to the highly poetic nature of the film. I had seen the movie before with a different score and it didn't have the same effect. Blame it on the score, I guess.The fact is, everything we see in this film will be annihilated in the following turbulent years. It's all done with a hand-cranked camera and is very powerful indeed.I disagree with the other reviewer who compares Dziga Vertov to Leni Reifenstall and calls for his branding as a war criminal. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL was exalting the virtues of the Nazi party itself while this film is more about the communist way of life in general. Even if Stalin turned out to be a war criminal afterward, in my opinion this is different. This film is a major achievement for it's time and is still relevant.
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