Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Man With the Movie Camera- Dziga Vertov
The Man With the Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov is classified as an avant-garde film, a term that it most definitely lives up to. Upon watching it today, I had an extremely difficult time trying to grasp the message that Vertov was trying to portray. The film had no semblance of order; the clips were arranged in a very obscure manner, making my ability to discern what was going on quite difficult. However, the wide variety of shots and angles used in the film made it a bit more interesting to watch; the avant-garde style of the work being the reason for this. Another facet of the film I enjoyed very much so was the musical score; in the film, the text said that the music was either inspired or influenced by Vertov (the exact wording escapes me at the moment.) Regardless, the music made the film much more enjoyable; the dramatic sound making the seemingly random clips more enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, these two factors are the only positive things I can mention about The Man With the Movie Camera; Vertov's film just did not rub me the right way.
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Yes, the soundtrack here as performed by the Alloy Orchestra was put together based on notes written by Vertov himself. I actually saw them perform live for a different Soviet film (Alexander Dovzhenko's *Earth* once). They're really, really good!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how you felt about the film. The wide variety of shots and subject matter also gave me a difficult time trying to grasp the meaning of the film. The best part of the film was the music. It was phenomenal and added to the film greatly.
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