When you think of Soviet silent cinema, 3 names immediately come to mind. There’s Sergei Eisenstein (BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN), Vsevolod Pudovkin (MOTHER), and Alexander Dovzhenko (EARTH). These directors and their movies are celebrated for their use of montage editing. The man who pushed that idea farther than anyone else at the time was Dziga Vertov (“spinning top”), a pseudonym for David Abelevich Kaufman (1896-1954) who is not as well known as the others. He initially studied medicine and later began writing fiction and non-fiction before focusing on camera technique. By 1917 he was working as an editor on Soviet newsreels before taking his equipment to the battlefront of World War I and to protest movements at home.
A fervent Socialist and devoted to Lenin, he began to use his newsreels to hone his technique and to further Communist ideology. His primary concern was to develop “film truth” by concentrating on arranged images of everyday life and doing away with traditional narrative and dramatic structure. Nowhere is this more evident than in his avant garde documentary THE MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA. It remains as fresh and provocative today as it was in 1929 especially in this new transfer which shows the film the way it was originally released. This digital restoration is a collaborative effort from several different organizations and it is an absolute revelation.
The pristine imagery is complemented by a persuasive new score from the Alloy Orchestra that truly complements the often startling visuals the film contains. To fully appreciate how good this restoration is, compare it with the other films on the disc which haven’t been restored. They are quite watchable but look their age. MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA looks as if it were shot yesterday. Speaking of the other three films, they keep this release from getting the full 5 stars. It has nothing to do with their look or sound (which is vintage early Soviet) but rather with the content. KINO EYE, ENTHUSIASM, and especially THREE SONGS OF LENIN are seriously heavy handed propaganda pieces that become tiresome after awhile despite their remarkable visuals.
The anti-religious imagery in the opening parts of ENTHUSIASM will offend some people while the endless shots of Lenin in his coffin surrounded by the grieving masses while extolling his virtues in THREE SONGS ABOUT LENIN must be seen to be believed. Of course this set will be of primary interest to film scholars and those interested in Soviet silent cinema and as such it comes highly recommended. If you’ve never seen MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA then you should. Orson Welles certainly did. Many thanks to Lobster Films, the EYE Film Institute, La Cinematique de Toulouse, and Blackhawk Films for the work and the materials. Also thanks to Flicker Alley for making the release of this rare material possible.
The Capsule Critic 