Pocket cinema: The Man with the Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov‘s The Man with the Movie Camera with the 2003 Cinematic Orchestra synonymous soundtrack for today’s electro-jazzy downtempo mood… Ninja Tune‘s Cinematic Orchestra in their moment that’s for sure…

And what about you?! I know that you have already seen Vertov‘s filmacholic artwork… but this soundtrack gives to the film a new dimension… something you can get close to more easily…

You know, whenever I imagine how would world look like if somebody would ‘teleport’ me into the past, my imagination is still struggling with black & white images I saw in silent movies before or with motifs from an old photo album with vintage patina…

Synopsis:
The Man with the Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova who helped with the process of deleting and adding new frames into the film.

Vertov’s feature film, produced by the Ukrainian film studio VUFKU, presents urban life in Odessa and other Soviet cities. From dawn to dusk Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play, and interacting with the machinery of modern life. To the extent that it can be said to have “characters,” they are the cameraman of the title and the modern Soviet Union he discovers and presents in the film.

This film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques Vertov invents, deploys or develops, such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop motion animations and a self-reflexive style. (synopsis taken from wiki)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6a

Part 6b

Part 7

Part 8

The End