An interesting piece in the reading from Dziga Vertov is the part describing his methods and influences of his films throughout his life. “The most ‘theoretical’ film of the silent era self-confined to the image alone.” So the images in and of themselves are considered theoretical, and further described as “documentary in material but utopian in essence.”
It’s interesting to learn how Vertov’s cinematic style reflects his life theories and values. “The polar tenets of Vertov’s theory were ‘life caught unawares’ and ‘the Communist deciphering of reality’.” I believe that these two phrases lead Vertov into his specifically stylized cinematic path. Vertov moved from diary style to poetical to theoretical films, due to certain events in his life competing with his morals and values.
In relation to his film Man with the Movie Camera, Vertov’s theories and stylistic choices merge to create an inspiring piece that questions the language of cinema based on the separation of film from “movie”. In referring to the three cinematic styles – diary, poetic, and theoretic – each one is depicted and supported in the film. Obviously, the diary element is right off the bat with the film following a man with a camera. The poetic element lies in the simple music, the composition of everyday objects, people and places, as well as the many motifs that change from sequence to sequence. Some examples of these motifs are the sequences with circular non-moving objects placed in the same frame in each shot, the moving motif where the only thing moving from scene to scene is something that goes up and left, and a symmetrical motif where each shot contains a certain symmetry to complete the sequence. Theoretically, the ideas behind an image, or a small montage of images, reflect a situation or statement about the world they live in. For instance, the sleeping woman’s tranquil face is intercut with plastic female heads of display figures in the shops around town; there is a shot with a doll sitting at a sewing machine; there’s a montage of a woman’s eye intercut with an open window, and with a camera iris that all go through focusing and blinking characteristics through the edits.
Nicole, I like how you focused on the different approaches and tactics in Vertov's film and looked at the elements that are "poetic", "diaristic", and "theoretical".
ReplyDeleteYou start off by looking at the quote that describes Vertov's film as “[t]he most ‘theoretical’ film of the silent era self-confined to the image alone.” You then go on to equate "images in and of themselves" as theoretical. I don't think this is quite what the author means. Rather, I think that Vertov's theories about art and life (as you mention later) informed his decision to only rely on images in his film. Further, the description of the film as “documentary in material but utopian in essence" would be interesting to explore further especially since you looked up the word "utopia" in the previous post. What are your thoughts on this description now that you have researched the concept?