Man with the Movie Camera

The Man with the Movie Camera is described as a documentary film directed by Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Vertov takes us on a stroll through everyday life in Russia through the use of the “man with the movie camera”.  Although the film is a documentary and does bring us through daily Russian life, Vertov has the incentive to portray the life has strictly utopian. He looks to show the beauty and fun of filmmaking as he makes rebellious and outgoing adventures such as lying down on the railroad tracks while the train is approaching only to make sure he got an unusual angle. Vertov utilizes many atypical concepts and cinematic language aids throughout his filmmaking of the Man with the Movie Camera. He first makes the illusion that the film was made in one city even though it was really made in three cities. Vertov was able to do this through his use of montage and continuous clips being flown together. There is no way we would be able to tell which city is which. His use of freeze frames also plays a big role in his filmmaking as he uses it to almost remind us that movies are only fictional and never real. Mediated and stopped images can never happen in actual life. Not only that, but he works to make the audience feel uncomfortable and out of place through the use of his kino-eye which shows an eye looking out the camera lens from a close-up view. Overall, I can say Vertov’s style, willingness to go out of cinematic norms is something that ultimately caught my eye. He created a piece that forced the audience to think critically not only about the movie, but about their own lives as well.