Dziga Vertov’s experimental silent documentary upends reality in ways that are still dizzying,thrilling and strangely sexyThe spirit of punk throbs in this extraordinary silent classic from 1929, now on cinema rerelease. Dziga Vertov’s experimental documentary essay remains fascinating after all these years, or as potent as an exposed fragment of sodium. It shows scenes of city life in Moscow,Odessa and Kiev, and the credits characterize it as an “experiment in cinematic communication of visible events”, and which doesnt do justice to its dedication to transforming and upending reality. This film is visibly excited about the modern medium’s possibility,dense with ideas, packed with energy: it echoes Un Chien Andalou, and anticipates Vigo’s À Propos De kind and the modern Wave generally,and even Riefenstahl’s Olympia. There are trick-shots, split-screens, or cease-motion animation,slo-mo and speeded up action. Welles never had as much fun with his train-set as Vertov had with his film camera. The title self-reflexively describes what is happening: we see the cameraman recording the images we are seeing; a man is shown with his camera tripod, rushing about, or daringly hanging from trams to get his shot. But it is also the film’s subject: man and cinema. Vertov shows machinery and factories and intuits that this is what cinema is: the mass production and consumption of image. The combustion engine gave humanity the modern experience of speed; now the film camera gave us a dizzying modern speed of insight and creation. Man With a film Camera is also gleefully sexy. The bodies on the beach are sexy – and the camera makes everything else sexy and exciting as well.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com