Chelovek s kino-apparatom (1929) YTS

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

Could this be the original observational documentary? We

Could this be the original observational documentary? We begin as the audience flood into a cinema and settle down in front of the big screen. The cameraman then takes us on a tour of his city with no apparent rhyme nor reason to the imagery we see. There's a bit of the old Imperial opulence reflected in the architecture to contrast with the street beggars (whom the Soviet Union aways denied existed). A very near miss whilst trying to get some POV footage of a train. Then what feels rather pruriently like a look at a woman's morning levée all intercut cleverly using the camera shutter to deliver this in chapters as their city awakens and the trams start to run, the bustle sets in and the industry comes alive. The photography frequently captures the intricacy of different manufacturing processes - both with and without human input, the latter sometimes being quite labour intensive. People mill about like ants racing to and fro and the cameraman himself appears in shot now and again to add additional context to this remarkably captivating look at a day in the life of an huge variety of people and activities - including a wedding and funeral. What's quite astonishing is the quality of the film. It's almost pristine, almost a century after it was made, and there are even some very basic visual effects merging the images and creatively capturing the lives of the community. It's barely an hour long, but effectively combines pictures of the serious and professional as well as the mischievous and playful and it's well worth a gander.

Reviewed by Matt_Layden 8 / 10

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The Man With The Movie Camera shows fragments of life transformed into film. It was a film about a film and a kaleidoscope of daily life of people in Russia.The film is constantly moving, showing snippets of people in this town and how they live. The music, which was composed by Dziga himself, is fast paced and flows perfectly with the images.At one scene the film begins to slow down, much like a train does when it arrives at a station, the music that accompanies these images begins to slow down as well, until we come to a complete stop. The film then transforms into still images, only to start up again. Dziga even uses the train as a way to connect the pace of the film and music to the still images and back again. The train slowly arrives and departs, the music slowly stops and starts up, the images become still and then back to the quick paced editing.It's a master of cinematic techniques; the way the film was shot was very dangerous. The camera operator stands in a moving carriage while he films, supported by nothing. It's easy to see the influences this film has on what we see today, many people use this quick editing style and we've become accustomed to it. Just look at films like Run Lola Run or your average Michael Bay blockbuster.

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Chelovek s kino-apparatom

1929 [RUSSIAN]

Documentary / Music

Chelovek s kino-apparatom

1929 [RUSSIAN]

Documentary / Music

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Could this be the original observational documentary? We

Study This Film

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