I watched this with the score by the Cinematic Orchestra. I thought that the score sounded amazing and accompanied the images really well, but it did feel a little bit too modern for the film. I think that it could have been stripped down to get rid of the electric instruments and the mixing (like vinyl scratching) to only instruments that were used in the 1920s. I did like the arrangement, though. I’m sure that once I hear the other, more traditional scores that this one will become a guilty pleasure.
The film, though, is amazing. Beside the camera tricks and editing innovations, this is just a really solid hour of filmmaking. The film is about filmmaking, and ends up portraying the world as a kind of giant movie camera. Factory machines and city rhythms mimic the mechanics of the film camera. The gears and forward and backward motions mirrors the editing of the film. I often couldn’t tell if I was watching Vertov’s film, or the film that the ‘man’ is shooting. Maybe everything is both. The film kept an incredible pace throughout without feeling rushed. Most shots are less than 2 seconds long I would guess. The film has many shots of trains that I thought were both evocative of and better than the early Lumiere film. The camera takes all positions, and is placed under the moving trains as well as above. The editing splits two or more shots of trains into one to create a whirling and bustling city. With so much motion throughout the film, it made Vertov’s world feel more crowded and populated than the world is in the 21th century.
This is the earliest film that i have seen that I would put into the ‘just footage with music’ category that Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka fall into. I like this more for several reasons. One, it has obvious nostalgic value. It was great watching this on a flat, widescreen display and thinking how far everything has come since this film, and how this film still has better things in it than most of what is made now. Also, this film isn’t as cynical as those more recent films are. Instead of being interested in the destruction of humanity and the earth, Man With a Movie Camera celebrates the growth and the life of the city and boldly anticipates the motion picture revolution that it knows is going to come in the next several decades. This is an optimistic and energetic film that I will try to watch with every score that has been written for it.