Must see for all video artists


Bought this from BN last week. Extremely interesting.

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The reason this is 'must see' for video artists is because you will realise that basically everything video artists have been doing the past 80 years has been a waste of time. Vertov perfected it first try. It's over. It ended with The Man with the Movie Camera.

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I couldn't agree more, the use of cameras in this is superb, the only thing that I think could rival it in camerawork is 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was great, considering they had no actual shots from outer space when the film was made.

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Important as a historical marker, sure; similar to "The Trial of Joan of Arc" as a milestone of its day.

But you guys have to be kidding me if you think that rudiamentary juxtoposition equates to greatness in the modern cinema. Lots of repetition, heavy handed editing, and 'special effects' done purely just for their own sake.

If you went out and shot man with a movie camera today it would be laughed off the screen.

Again, an extremely important film to study to better understand soviet montage filmmaking and specifically the concepts of Sergi Eisenstein. But as 'the greatest visual achievement of all time except maybe 2001'... come on fanboys and join the 21st century.

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Vertov was after something totally different than Eisenstein. He was not that interested in montage, but the Kino eye and the truth of the lens, not the editing.

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Eisenstein actually criticised this film.

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If you went out and shot man with a movie camera today it would be laughed off the screen.

Of course you can't make the exact same film 80 years later. However, if you watch Koyaanisqatsi you'll realize that people obviously don't "laugh it off the screen".

By the way, I think Casablanca would be "laughed off the screen", if it was made today, or Charlie Chaplin. Shakespeare would be laughed off the stage and Beethoven would also be laughed at, simply because times are changing and we expect new works of art to be "modern" and not anachronistic.

Im Kino gewesen. Geweint. ---Franz Kafka

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today would be far from its current existence without the majority of those characters you mentioned

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Sorry, but no. Maybe you should watch Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The room's a wreck, but her napkin is folded.

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