Chelovek s kino-apparatom (1929)'s comments

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Flops

This was way ahead of its time. The music in the Cinematic Orchestra version definitely adds to it. Almost makes for a psychedelic vibe at times.

10 years 9 months ago

Wise Jake

A great film. Insane montage and groundbreaking camera techniques. Definitely worth the hour it takes to watch this gem.

13 years 11 months ago

Probably the most genre-less (in a good way) movie I've ever seen. It's like watching a scene-setting montage that lasts an hour. I watched it with the score by The Cinematic Orchestra, which works fantastically, and gives the film a great sense of freedom rarely seen in films this old. It's a shame being a documentary discounts this from the 1920s list.

11 years 8 months ago

dombrewer

I'd never really clocked this film until it suddenly landed with an almighty bang in the Sight and Sound Critics poll this month - knocking Eisenstein's "Battleship Potempkin" out of the Top 10. And what an absolute pleasure it is - unlike "BP", which never particularly interested or thrilled me regardless of its influence and stature - where Eisenstein's montage editing in 1925 is clever and effective, Vertov's four years later is dazzling, witty, beautiful, ingenious... and the intellectual rigour he uses in bringing his vision to the screen is extraordinary. Using the camera in every conceivable fashion it's a documentary film of "a day in the life" but also a film of the filming of that day, and the editing, and the watching too. How thrilling to have sat in the cinema in 1929 and watched a film that showed the audience sitting and watching the same film. Pretty much every camera trick in the book is employed, including multiple exposures, reverse, fast and slow motion, split screen (Christopher Nolan's inspiration for a city folding over onto itself perhaps?) and great stop motion animation sections (including the camera itself coming to life like R2-D2's Russian great-grandfather). Along with a handful of other classic silent films this is decades ahead of its time and a joy from start to finish. Thank the lord for those critics of the Sight and Sound poll for pushing this film right into the top ranks.

p.s I watched the Cinematic Orchestra version on Youtube as well - lovely modern jazzy/electronica score - a bit like Zero 7, Air or Cafe Del Mar. Definitely worth a look if you haven't seen this version.

11 years 8 months ago

Siskoid

Vertov should be spoken of in the same breath as Eisenstein as fat as I'm concerned, on the basis of Man with a Movie Camera alone, and so should Svilova (the Woman with Movie Editing Machine). What an amazing achievement this film is. Ostensibly documentary, the film parses through what I imagine is tons of footage to present an amalgamated "day in the life" of a Soviet town, waking up, going about the business of life, the editing contrasting birth and death, work and fun, cleanliness and dirtiness, arts and sports, at a percussive rhythm accentuated by the current print's soundtrack, which is just about the best and most appropriate score for a silent film I've ever experienced. For all the cinema vérité on show, Vlatov isn't afraid to use special effects, whether split screens or over/under-cranking the camera or superimpositions or stop-motion. And if that's all he did, it would still be a masterclass in film making. But it's not all he does. The movie is also its own making of, and part of the action is the film maker himself, capturing the footage you're seeing while another camera films him. The film stops on a frame, and we're with the editor, she's making her own choices, the movie resumes. We're its audience, but there's also a theater audience in the film watching the film we're watching. And it all builds to a crescendo, not - as you think it will - the town going to sleep, circle complete - but a fracas of images as the film maker's eye darts from one to another, wanting to take it all in, fascinated by life. Just wonderful.

3 years 10 months ago

ianjd

This was really hard to search for on this site.

10 years 7 months ago

sureup

In the beginning it seemed like wtf but then i got into it. Really cool stuff!

12 years 11 months ago

Sobchak

oooh! Pre-war tits!

13 years ago

AfterTheParade

Just watched this and I must say: this was one of the greatest cinematic experiences I've had in a while. Absolutely universal, just pure cinema with incredible camera work and stunning montage. I watched the UK Blu-Ray with an awesome orchestral soundtrack composed by Michael Nyman. Highly recommended!

1 year 1 month ago