DzigaVertov (David/Denis Kaufman)1896-1954

Aesthetic program

The Kinoks group (kino “cinema” + oko“eye” and okno“window”)

Programmatic "Manifesto" “Kino-glaz” (“cine-eye”).

Documentary truth. Films as “wall-newspapers”

"It is far from simple to show the truth, yet the truth is simple." (DzigaVertov)

Using one's eyes (lens as an eye)

Cine-Eye

"Our eyes see very little and very badly – so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the telescope...now they have perfected the cinecamera to penetrate more deeply into the visible world, to explore and record visual phenomena so that what is happening now, which will have to be taken account of in the future, is not forgotten." (Dziga Vertov)

Realized metaphor

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Begins with a statement of values

Against theatre, acting, scenarios

No narrative No individual hero People merging

with machines

Constructivist aesthetic

Glorification of technology, delight in watching machines

Camera, machines, trains, trams A “choreography” of machines Machines as “perfect hands” – humans

become machine-like The camera “orders” the events to happen "I am the machine that reveals the world

to you as only I alone am able to see it." (Dziga Vertov)

Constructivist aesthetic

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

No intertitles (but many bits of text tell the story)

Continuation of "Kino-Pravda" ("film truth") – a film series started by Vertov in 1922, the title played on the state newspaper title Pravda (“Truth”)

Genre and devices

Documentary in the genre of "Life of a City"

Actually, several cities shown ( Moscow, Odessa, Kharkov)

Uses the conventions of film-making to “unmask” them (the Kuleshov effect with the dummies)

Rapid cross-cutting – “wake-up therapy”

Ideological message

Down with NEP (New Economic Policy)

Down with bourgeois values, including feature films

Manual labour versus service; down with service

Lev Trotsky’s quote illustrated (vodka, church and cinema as “drugs” used by world capitalism against the working class)

Artistic message

Film about film-making (self-reflexive)

Begins with a shot of the movie theatre and a reel of completed film

Heroes are: the film editor (played by DV’s wife ElizavetaSvilova), cameraman (played by Mikhail Kaufman, DV's brother), and the camera.