Man With A Movie Camera on DVD (1929)

Man with an editing suite

Santa from Herts , 10/09/2004

This is a self confessed 'experiment in the language of film', as the opening credits/disclaimer/warning professes. It lacks plot, characters, and titles, and yet it manages to engage one's full attention for it's full hour, and beyond.

The camera work itself IS something to behold, but from the very start it is the editing that the filmmakers, and audience, seem to be interested in. The montage builds to frenetic pace at times, bringing you to the edge of your seat, in anticipation of what? You don't know. But something. And by God it delivers in spades.

The film is helped condsiderably by its score, (a keyboard affair that smacks of synthesyser), which is nothing like, luckily, the criminal redubbing of Metropolis in the late eighties.

Made in 1929, there are shots here that still surprise by their inventiveness, and images that still startle- a young woman, late twenties, shooting the effigy of an old hag bearing a swastika, seems to be an incredibly chilling anticipation of the coming decade.

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A bizzare experimental documentary

Philip Concannon from London , 05/05/2004

Now this is a strange one. In 1929 Dziga Vertov set out to film Russian life 'as it is'. To achieve this he employed all the visual tricks available to him at the time.

The result is an odd picture that sometimes dazzles and often baffles the viewer. Vertov is determined to jam in as many split-screen, dissolves and slow motion shots as possible. He films the mundanities of life - people going to work, brushing their teeth, sleeping - with a vigour that occasionally makes the images sing.

Set to a jaunty score, the film doesn't always cohere. But it remains an audacious experiment, a film in which the true star is the camera itself.

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Binky#2 from CREWE , 22/03/2004

This film is without doubt one of the greatest pieces of film-making i have ever witnessed. Without dialogue, plot, characters or set the film tells us storiesof a city through a dazzling array of cinematic and editing techniques which make more recent fare seem pale in comparison. There is a real energy and verve in the images presented to you, a joyful celebration of inner-city life that is both exhilarating and infectious. My only complaint is that it is over too soon.

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Experimental film made fascinating by commentary

David Sheehan from Lincoln, UK , 16/06/2005

When I requested this film I wasn't at all sure what to expect. My housemate, who had seen it, warned me that the film was visually very clever, but of such a different time and culture that it was hard to follow the flow of the film. However the marvellous commentary track helps explain the contexts of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and of the director Vertov's belief that documentaries are more honest and fulfilling than fictional films. Having understood a little of the background to the film I could then more fully enjoy the camera trickery and the virtuoso editing. To add icing to the cake there is even the occasional bit of Buster Keaton-like stuntwork, such as when the cameraman is seen turning the camera crank while riding on the foot plate of a steam engine.

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Watch the other DVD release of this interesting film.

David Sheehan from Lincoln, UK , 16/06/2005

If you're a huge fan of Michael Nyman then rent this version of the film. However if, like me, you don't know anything about the cultural and political situation in the Soviet Union in the 1920s then do yourself a favour and rent the other BFI release of this film without the Nyman soundtrack but with an insightful commentary. Without a commentary I'd have been baffled by this marvellous film.

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A bizzare experimental documentary

Philip Concannon from London , 05/05/2004

Now this is a strange one. In 1929 Dziga Vertov set out to film Russian life 'as it is'. To achieve this he employed all the visual tricks available to him at the time.

The result is an odd picture that sometimes dazzles and often baffles the viewer. Vertov is determined to jam in as many split-screen, dissolves and slow motion shots as possible. He films the mundanities of life - people going to work, brushing their teeth, sleeping - with a vigour that occasionally makes the images sing.

Set to a jaunty score, the film doesn't always cohere. But it remains an audacious experiment, a film in which the true star is the camera itself.

Read all highest rated reviews