 8. Vertov 2 Readings Zabel: “Nature, Machines, and Pantheism” Discussion:  Make your entries for Session 8 in the Discussions page of our Blackboard Site Film Vertov: Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)  Vertov’s glorification of man’s relationship with machine is captured in this film, his most widely known and studied. It also demonstrates his montage theories and provides the enduring image of the ‘kino-eye.’  Movie Camera is a documentary film that chronicles one day across a variety of cities, capturing the work and routine carried out from the beginning of the day until the end of the day. It also frequently shows the eponymous man with a movie camera, Vertov’s brother Mikhail Kaufman, capturing all the scenes shown to us, as well as showing us the editing of the film strips used elsewhere in the film. Movie Camera functions as a celebration of human life, but also of urban and technological life that was made possible after the Revolution. Through its combination of shots featuring images of people, technology and the city, the film draws metaphors between all these elements and the perfect utopian state.[1] Furthermore, through its representation of different cities, including Moscow, Odessa and Kiev, it draws together far-flung locations in the newly formed Soviet Union. Director: Dziga Vertov Writer: Dziga Vertov Cast: Mikhail Kaufman Year: 1929 Production Company: VUFKU David C. Gillespie. Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda (London: Wallflower Press, 2000)74.

8. Vertov 2

Readings

Zabel: “Nature, Machines, and Pantheism”

Discussion:

Make your entries for Session 8 in the Discussions page of our Blackboard Site

Film

Vertov: Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)

Vertov’s glorification of man’s relationship with machine is captured in this film, his most widely known and studied. It also demonstrates his montage theories and provides the enduring image of the ‘kino-eye.’
Movie Camera is a documentary film that chronicles one day across a variety of cities, capturing the work and routine carried out from the beginning of the day until the end of the day. It also frequently shows the eponymous man with a movie camera, Vertov’s brother Mikhail Kaufman, capturing all the scenes shown to us, as well as showing us the editing of the film strips used elsewhere in the film.

Movie Camera functions as a celebration of human life, but also of urban and technological life that was made possible after the Revolution. Through its combination of shots featuring images of people, technology and the city, the film draws metaphors between all these elements and the perfect utopian state.[1] Furthermore, through its representation of different cities, including Moscow, Odessa and Kiev, it draws together far-flung locations in the newly formed Soviet Union.

Director: Dziga Vertov

Writer: Dziga Vertov

Cast: Mikhail Kaufman

Year: 1929

Production Company: VUFKU

David C. Gillespie. Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda (London: Wallflower Press, 2000)74.