Chelovek s kino-apparatom

Jesus! Genre: Silent Avant-Garde Documentary (Soviet Union) Starring: Russian cities, its people, and the cameraman shooting them. Directed By: Dziga Vertov Overview: In this film, declared as an experiment in filmmaking, the director attempts to create a film without a plot, without actors, without script or structured narrative. In short, creating an Avant-Garde Film. Performance: The man who goes around a 'typical modern Russian city' is without a doubt an expert at capturing and keeping the essence of the candid. From children to Babushkas , we see the faces of joy and hardship, little moments of the slices of life that make up a day without context, leaving the 'why' open to as much interpretation as you would have when passing someone laughing in the street. This manner of passive observance says that people make up a place, without forgetting that the place is the primary focus. Rating: 8 Cinematography: Luckily for me this director only has one other film...

  ***** USSR Certainly the most famous of Dziga Vertov's sensory onslaughts and probably the most exciting. It's similar to the 'Symphonies' of the period (to Berlin, Paris etc.) in that it's a consummately crafted, endlessly fascinating document of a time and place (or places - namely Odessa, Moscow and Kiev); though Vertov is much more interested than Ruttmann & co. in documenting the cunning and allure of the movie camera and its romancing of the cinemagoer. He employs all sorts of visual trickery - split-screen, superimpositions, stop-motion, slow-motion, fast-motion, super-fast-motion - though even at its barest and most organic, his imagery is stunning.