Vertov and the City

Dziga Vertov devoted his life to nonfiction film; he despised fiction film in all forms. One of his most famous films, The Man with the Movie Camera is a random sampling of city life in Russia. However, there is almost a fictional element to it, in that the city he portrays is a composite city made up of various Russian cities, but does not actually exist. There are also other fictionalized images throughout the film, in that they are things that cannot occur in real life, such as the cameraman popping out of objects he could not possibly have fit into. These elements are merely tricks of the editing, and the film itself is nonfiction due to its lack of scripted acting or likewise, but they give the film a somewhat fictional feel to it. They appeal to the psyche more than the rational brain. I think it is also part of what makes the film so interesting. The reading discussed a group that he was part of, the kinoki group, who relied on newsreel type footage to create their films. I think this film is in direct opposition to the kinoki type film philosophy. Though everything in the film was nonfiction, it was certainly not newsreel type, or even linear at all. I do believe that it was a city symphony piece, as described in the reading, but it tore down city life as much as it romanticized it. The homeless man sleeping on the street is a typical image of any big city, but opposes the utopian view of the imagined city within the film. In this way, Vertov undercuts his own work to prove that there is no perfect city.