Man With A Movie Camera
I don't even know what to say. I hardly know what I just watched! Truly, I think many of you all would agree there was so much to take in that it is hard to tell what was part of the story (was there story?), what was symbolic and why, what was relevant and hard to tell what was what sometimes. Man With A Movie Camera is overwhelming to say the least. Yet there are a few things I noticed throughout the film that were very intriguing, and got me thinking that the whole thing wasn't just nonsense.
One of the most interesting aspects of this movie is that we see the cameraman many times over. We get to see what he (Dziga Vertov) sees. Not only that but we get a glimpse of the behind the scenes on the film being cut and processed. Where most films try to fool the viewer in to thinking that there is no camera at all (and no camera magic so to speak), this film blatantly shows the camera in almost every scene. It's even in the title of the film!
But there is one more aspect to the film I really want to talk about: the concept of a beginning and an end. I was able to spot several examples of opposite ideals, and I am sure they are more. Perhaps the most obvious one is the interchanging of scenes between a woman giving birth and a funeral procession, the contrast of life and death, the juxtaposition of life beginning and life ending. There is another instance of this that is also easy to notice: the couple getting married and the couple getting divorced. Perhaps some other contrasts that are a bit harder to notice are however the state of being awake and asleep. During the beginning of the film we see a few different people asleep, but at some point these people also wake up. This can possibly be connected to the opening and closing of eyes and blinds, and even how we see the camera lens open and close throughout the film. In addition, we see the difference between clean and dirty and beautiful and ugly through the appearance of various characters. Lastly, the concept of being stopped and being in motion (trolleys stop and go, camera footage rolling and being paused) relate to the idea of there being a beginning and end to everything in life, and that things of this world are not eternal. These cycles occurring in everyday life are emphasized are emphasized and repeated multiple times throughout the film, and eye of the cameraman catches it all in action.
After sitting back and taking everything in, there really are some amazing scenes captured in this film. It was worth the watch, and definitely in need of further analysis.
What did you notice in the film?
One of the most interesting aspects of this movie is that we see the cameraman many times over. We get to see what he (Dziga Vertov) sees. Not only that but we get a glimpse of the behind the scenes on the film being cut and processed. Where most films try to fool the viewer in to thinking that there is no camera at all (and no camera magic so to speak), this film blatantly shows the camera in almost every scene. It's even in the title of the film!
But there is one more aspect to the film I really want to talk about: the concept of a beginning and an end. I was able to spot several examples of opposite ideals, and I am sure they are more. Perhaps the most obvious one is the interchanging of scenes between a woman giving birth and a funeral procession, the contrast of life and death, the juxtaposition of life beginning and life ending. There is another instance of this that is also easy to notice: the couple getting married and the couple getting divorced. Perhaps some other contrasts that are a bit harder to notice are however the state of being awake and asleep. During the beginning of the film we see a few different people asleep, but at some point these people also wake up. This can possibly be connected to the opening and closing of eyes and blinds, and even how we see the camera lens open and close throughout the film. In addition, we see the difference between clean and dirty and beautiful and ugly through the appearance of various characters. Lastly, the concept of being stopped and being in motion (trolleys stop and go, camera footage rolling and being paused) relate to the idea of there being a beginning and end to everything in life, and that things of this world are not eternal. These cycles occurring in everyday life are emphasized are emphasized and repeated multiple times throughout the film, and eye of the cameraman catches it all in action.
After sitting back and taking everything in, there really are some amazing scenes captured in this film. It was worth the watch, and definitely in need of further analysis.
What did you notice in the film?
I like how you bring up how a lot of things in the film have cycles, I was really interested in this as well, in my opinion, the entire film in itself is a cycle and that is something that I really enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWheels themselves are extremely important in this film--as well as wheel-like motions. Basically anything that causes and continues movement fascinates Vertov.
ReplyDeleteSo it's not surprising that we can extend this further into cycles (life cycles, daily cycles, newspaper circulars). For Vertov all of these things are very *concretely* connected!
I agree and feel as though this movie is a simple cycle on how one is to make a movie, about cycles.
ReplyDeleteUntil reading your blog, I never truly realized how many examples of cycles there were throughout the film. The cycles really added a layer to the film in a movie that seemingly had no story.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more, I really don't know what I watched either. This was such a busy film.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that I was confused on what watched but after I'd say the first 15 minutes is when I realized that the director was trying to showcase life and the real world.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I never thought about there being cycles in the film until you brought it up. It made me realize that the director was actually trying to show us something instead of a random montage that doesn't add up to anything.
ReplyDelete