The Man With The Movie Camera Analysis

Beginning with the title and logo of the film, The Man with the Movie Camera, we can conclude that we are invited to examine the relation and the collaboration between human being and machine. Vertov makes it clear, in his written manifesto at the beginning of the film, that “the film presents an experiment in the cinematic communication of visible events …. This experimental work aims at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema based on its total separation from the language of theatre and literature”. Vertov wants us to investigate this relation through visual language, as he presents a group of surreal images and shots, inviting us to participate in the decoding process of his film. The film begins with a shot of a huge camera and a cameraman sets his camera upon it. The

Vertov depicts workers at their workplaces and inside the workers’ clubs. During these senses, Vertov presents a woman stuffing the cigarettes while other women working on the phone center, using fast motion or speeding images, and presenting them in a superhuman speed. By doing this, Vertov aims to show the workers’ involvement in their work and the joy that they feel in the paradise of the workplace. At the end of the work day, it is also the human hand that turned the machines off. Vertov’s message can be seen clearly here; it is the human being who invents and controls these machines, it is labor. Vertov also depicts workers during leisure time, as he presents them in workers’ club, drinking beer, playing chess and backgammon. He uses a reverse motion to help the workers to reset the backgammon pieces in order to enhance the leisure time. Vertov aims to present workers’ happiness during work and leisure time to enhance the image of his new society where work is as important as