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Man with a movie camera

post #1 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:01am
Thread Starter 
This film was interesting experiment, I think Koyaanisqatsi surpassed it. The idea of throwing alot of unconnected images onscreen with an overall idea can either be seen as an exercise in pretentiousness or can be illuminating, there are some interesting images in this film and some pretty revolutionary editing techniques used but overall the film seems to drag abit, other sequences are propelled along thanks to Michael Nyman's score while others just seem to drift.

Also, I really wasn't expecting to see an afterbirth shot of a woman's vagina in this film, it totally took me by surprise even though the buildup seemed like an obvious conclusion.
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post #2 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:15am
Being a little simplistic to say that Vertov's achievement, which prefigures and arguably creates much of what we consider 'cinema' was 'surpassed' by Koyaanisqatsi, yes? Or, more to the point, rather dismissive.

And discussing Nyman's score as used is one thing, but it's hardly the most integral aspect.

(Side note: I've never seen the film with the Cinematic Orchestra score, and sadly missed several chances to see it live with the Alloy Orchestra in the '90s.)
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post #3 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:41am
Thread Starter 
There's no doubt about it's influence, there are some truly wonderful images in this film, I'm not arguing that, I just prefer Koyaanisqatsi for it's execution of the same kind of concept, on a technical level, at least.
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post #4 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:43am
Well, saying this film is pretentious is really missing the point. Early technicolor may have had a garish color pallete, but it was about the process. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA is about exploring the possibilities of cinema. Whether it "works" or not is strikes me as slightly beside the point, though I have fond memories of seeing this in cinema studies.
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post #5 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:45am
I'd throw 'pretentious' in front of KOYAANISQATSI long before I'd ever think to apply it to Dziga Vertov.
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post #6 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:49am
There's nothing wrong with prefering the modern improvements - having an additional fifty years of cinema may help hone similar ideas, and the more recent has a more important message, in some ways. But I wouldn't use KOYAANISQATSI to dismiss this. It's like saying the original King Kong would be better with CGI.
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post #7 of 7
1/21/09 at 12:52am
Thread Starter 
I said it could either be pretentious or illuminating, I never outright stated it was pretentious, it depends on the execution.
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