Man with a Movie Camera

Released 8th January 1929, Man with a Movie Camera is a Russian documentary-film that shows everyday life in the USSR. While the best way to describe the narrative is it being anthological, the way the film is edited makes it very loose in its emphasis on certain occurrences and people. That said, Man with a Movie Camera is arguably the father of modern film editing. When you watch older films, you will often notice that they were shot in long takes with extremely limited cutaways; in contrast this film utilises (even by today’s standards) heavily frequent cuts and split-screening to convey atmosphere through objects and tensity. These cuts give the film a special and unique visual identity which still remains undisputed after nearly a century.

Due to these cuts and minimalist anthology structure, the film does not have a cast so much as it has real people from the Soviet Union being captured going about their life. While this enables a level of authenticity, the only actual cast member we are left with is Mikhail Kaufman as the titular ‘man with a movie camera’. As opposed to imbuing personality into this protagonist, Kaufman simply acts as a focal point for the audience to see the transitions to the locations and activities being viewed on screen. Similarly, the film also acts as a frame narrative which uses a movie theatre to present the rest of the film: this results in an extended perception of film being able to bring people together through life experiences. The anthological stories told also manage to deliver a fascinating insight into what life was like during the soviets’ reign in the late 1920s, although, it could be argued that it may be somewhat staged in parts due to propaganda censorship in the nation.

As well as fantastic editing prowess, the application of green screen visual effects are also phenomenal for its time with several looking somewhat believable, an astounding achievement for such a young era of cinema. One aspect which varies however is the soundtrack; nearly all films had live compositions during this age of cinema which means that said compositions (music) changes between different versions hence making it difficult to comment on. Man with a Movie Camera is such a special film which stands as a visible landmark in cinema where the technical prowess shown will have anyone who values the history of cinema in awe.