Review on The Man with a movie camera 1928 b&w, silent Dziga Vertov Essay

Review on The Man with a movie camera 1928 b&w, silent Dziga Vertov (90min) - Essay Example Firstly, he reminds the audience, that this is an experiment in cinematic communication without the aid of inter-titles, sets actors and a scenario. Then he tells that this is an effort to create a truly international absolute language for cinema. His third claim is that this is an attempt to totally separate cinema from theatre and literature so that a pure cinematic language is born. Everything mundane and commonplace are attributed a meaning from the very beginning of the film. But enough space is given in the film for the viewer to indulge in this process of meaning creation on his/her own rather than agree to what the film maker suggests. The unfolding of the chairs in the theatre is recorded in a montage form as if that was the most important event of the day in that theatre. The long pause before the performance in which every artist holds his or her breath and is on the verge of starting to play is also made subject of another montage. This kind of detailing of the trivia progresses towards subtle and profound meaning creation as the film moves on. The camera eye is interspersed with the human eye in several frames. Images are repeated in different compositions to add a new element of detail. For example, there is a film poster of which we first see the pictures only. Later the name of the film also is displayed making us remember the image that we saw earlier in a new light. The film is divided into nine segments. Novel and even wild editing techniques are used throughout. Multiple exposures are used to emotionally link workers with the machines they use. Detailing with a passion to find correlations between human behaviour and actions of the machines has resulted in a number of powerful cuts like that from the close up of blinking of an eye to the movement of camera shutter blinds. Washing of human body is correlated with washing of walls of a building. Vertov also includes the process of film making into this creative interface of humans