One of the towering masterpieces of Soviet cinema. As much of a joy it is to watch, it is sad to think that the director was effectively silenced as soon as Stalin made "Socialist Realism" mandatory.
Man With a Movie Camera (1929)
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Reviews Counted:20
Fresh:19
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.9/10
Runtime: 75 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Not merely a cinematic portrait of a day in the life of a city, cinema pioneer Dziga Vertov's MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA is an experimental manifesto of vision. Controversial when it was created in... Not merely a cinematic portrait of a day in the life of a city, cinema pioneer Dziga Vertov's MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA is an experimental manifesto of vision. Controversial when it was created in 1929, the film still pulses with the unruly energy and innovation of Vertov's genius. Subverting and criticizing the conventions of capitalist fiction filmmaking that he so despised, Vertov and his revolutionary Kino-Eye crew (including his wife as editor and his brother as cameraman--both of whom appear in the film) created a plethora of filmic devices in order to comment on vision, life, Marxism, and modernity. Differing film speeds, superimposition, evocative and manipulative editing, and rhythmic graphic composition all blend seamlessly in a magic show of life above and below the city. Shooting shops, traffic, children, coal miners, workers, human bodies, and nature, Vertov creates visual rhymes and graphic portraits of the structure of life and the explosion of perception. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA took part in the city symphony genre that was popular at the time (BERLIN: SYMPHONIE OF A GREAT CITY is another example) but transcended it in its critical distance, sheer innovation, and sublimely fluid vision of man, machine, and society. [More]
Director: Dziga Vertov Group
Director: Dziga Vertov Group
Screenwriter: Dziga Vertov Group
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Release:
Oct 21, 1998
Reviews for Man With a Movie Camera
It becomes quite tedious and the hour that it lasts seems at least an hour and a half.
The film remains a fascinating souvenir, though its flourishes are now fairly familiar.
Announced to be an experiment in creating a "truly international language of cinema" it is an early example of self referential filmmaking
It's one of the most amazing, beautiful, complicated and ground-breaking films ever made, and yet it doesn't seem to have ever earned the respect it deserves.
Man with a Movie Camera is like a wordless anthem for all cinephiles, directly targeting that je ne sais quoi that makes cinema so powerful.
It's a startlingly avant-garde cross-examination of modern life, as well as a lesson in the power of filmmaking and an autopsy of its methods.
This is cameraman as documenter, magician and stuntman rolled into one.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| 98% 98% | Up |
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| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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