To say that this film was avante garde would probably be a bit of an understatement, especially for the 1920's. Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera is a dizzying sequence of polarized Soviet imagery set to the increasing tempo of the directors apparent musical notation. The first thing that struck me was actually the use of music in the film. Although the music was recorded by a modern orchestra, the score was apparently based on Vertov's notes; what struck me the most about the music was the use of tempo in corellation top the montage of the film. Vertov structures the film by starting out slowly, using the tempo of the quintesssential Russian city to time his film, and gradually building to a manic pace until the montage collapses and the film begins again with a differrent series of images.
Vertov's juxtaposition of images, such as excessive drinking with hard work, sets up a paradigm for viewing the film, excessive burgeois activity with righteous communist activity. these images compete against ech other while the tempo increases until, as the score suggests, they become manic and collapse; as though pre and post soviet Russia can not coesxist without destruction.
The setting of this film also gives a sort of universality to Man with the Movie Camera, the sort of non descript city with the everyday occurences does not seem stereotypically Russian, which really adds to the propagandist intent since the Soviets saw their revolution as the revolution of all societies.
Ultimately, the purpose of this film seems to be to bombard the audience with the constant movement of imagery, taking the idea of montage to its extreme; effective, but a little intense.
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I think it's very interesting that you noted how the music coincided with the images which ultimately lead to a somewhat panic state which definitely adds to the idea that the would be a undeniable clash between pre and post soviet Russia.
ReplyDeleteThere definitely are a few points in the film when "things fall apart" and come back together again. One thing we'll note in our discussion of the film tomorrow is that there are actually several different locales being displayed. For example, in addition to Odessa and other parts of Ukraine, we're also seeing quite a bit of Moscow (that's the Bolshoi Theater that Vertov likes to "split in half" a few times during the film).
ReplyDeleteNow try to reconsider that part where the film breaks down into still shots for a bit and then resumes action--and you might see how what you're saying can apply there as well.
It wasn't until I read your blog that I realized how well the music really did go with the film.
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