Kali Spencer
Richard Simpson
ENGL 342
09/29/20
Man With A Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera is a testament to the importance and influence of editing in the filmmaking process. While it seems to reject the idea of staged cinema in the conventional sense- not using set characters or an established plot but rather taking images from everyday life- it is nonetheless aware of its precarious role in defining reality.
Man With A Movie Camera Man seems to me to be a metacommentary on the art of film construction. Vertov directs the viewer's attention to the film's purpose and positioning through the use of scenes such as the one where he cuts to the editor constructing the film. In doing this we are allowed to see the visual effects that are being employed and the strategy is revealed to the audience. This seems to be intentional as the film focuses on the editing techniques that are being utilized like stop motion, slow motion, superimposition, split-screen editing, and montage. Most films use continuity editing to guide the audience using techniques that the audience is unaware of. In Man With A Movie Camera however we are shown the editing process, they want to draw our attention to it. Through showing us the editing process they show the way that we draw meaning and interpretations from shots being spliced together. This juxtaposition of shots creates a new meaning and speaks to the power of montage. In watching the editor assemble the narrative we see how film of the objective truth can be transformed and given subjective meaning through the combining of images and their editing.
While I think a lot of our past readings have grappled with the idea of reality and how it should be presented Vertov instead seems to have embraced the idea that reality in film is constructed. And rather than trying to hide this fact and present his film as the truth/reality, he lets the viewer in on the ways that editing can affect the meaning of a film.
Hello Kali,
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent analysis of The Man with the Movie Camera, and I was particularly drawn to your thesis statement, especially when it came to your statement "it is nonetheless aware of its precarious role in defining reality." When watching the film, I was particularly intrigued by the portrayal of women at that time, but reading your argument, I now realize that the way women are portrayed in this film, is most likely just a representation of how life was for women then. Although women's rights discussions were beginning to happen around the world, it was not necessarily a major focus, and I think that this is something to be considered.
Excellent observations here, Kali. The film is very much about the production of film itself, and instead of making that a mystery, revealing its very composition process. And all along the way showing us moments of daily life interspersed throughout the city. In prioritizing editing, montage, and construction do you feel the filmmaker has succeeding in creating a documentary?
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