Good movie but grossly overrated

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Man with a Movie Camera is the most distinctive film during that time because unlike any other movie there is no main character or extraordinary story line. Instead the film is based on an ordinary life of citizen in Soviet Union. The director revolutionized film industry using unique camera angle and technique. Nowadays we can still see lots of film technique that were used in Man with a Movie Camera. Although at the time that this film was released many people dismiss this film because there is no content and doesn't understand the emphasis of the author on the shooting technique. The film starts with a morning shot of the city when everyone is still sleeping. Then the film maker follows a some of individual daily routine throughout the day. The film often switch focus on who they are following to emphasize the way film can show parallelism timeline or how filmmaker can show audience how to sequence the shot. Man with a Movie Camera is a realism documentary film during Soviet Union. The author enhances the experience of audiences by using a movie camera to capture the important moment instead of using a normal camera. This film shows us how a sequence of photos can be taken a step further and add movie technique such as fast shot, metaphor and symbolism to tell the story and enhance view's experience. The first thing that we see in the film is how author capture choreography of the chair flipping when people enter the cinema theater. This first scene set the tone that it is going to be unconventional to every film during that era. Since there isn't any protagonist in the film, they need to capture audience attention with their form instead of their content. One of the most memorable technique in the film is making a comparison between people waking up and the window open. This technique takes advantage of quick-cut editing to make audience recognized the metaphor that the author want audience to understand and focus on the film. This technique is important for filmmaker because one of the way to catch audience attention is to make them think along with the film and left some part out for them to use their imagination to fill in the missing pieces. Another technique that stand out and see some usage in other film is the use of fast motion and slow motion after action is repeat. This happens during the screen that a woman is working on making cubic shape package. This technique is simple and effective because it makes ordinary or boring action look more interesting because the action is a lot faster, so it looks like there are more energy put into each action. In conclusion, although the film technique that was shown in the film is not refine. There are lots of technique that have been refine and envelop into recent movie. We can see some resemblance of Man with a movie camera technique in every movie since the release of this film. The film serve its purpose of attempting to use the camera to capture things other mediums of entertainment, such as books and plays, cannot with unique film technique.

No "greatest movies ever made" list would be complete without this masterpiece which revolutionized and pioneered many cinematography and editing techniques. This is a great example of a perfect movie.This experimental documentary does not follow the typical plot structure and it is even different than most other documentaries as well. It contains no plot, no named characters, and no resolution. Its purpose is to show us what an ordinary day in a Soviet Town would feel like. It was filmed in the cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, and Odessa.What this film is most famous for is its cinematic techniques director Dziga Vertov invented which helped to pioneer different film techniques. It uses techniques such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, Dutch angles, extreme close ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, a sequence of stop motion, and self-reflexive visuals. These techniques were popularized and they have been used in many movies ever since it was released. All of these dazzling techniques can be traced back to this film.Also, these different film techniques made many of the scenes feel very interesting. I can understand why someone might get bored during the film but I definitely do not have that problem. The techniques which I mentioned above kept me from getting bored and they made me love this film as much as I do. Because of the fabulous cinematography, this film's ending is one of my favorite endings of all time. It basically gave us a recap of all the techniques this film offered and it showed them to us very expeditiously. Also, this was the point in the film when it was playing its most upbeat and jazzy soundtrack. Considering that the film had an overall slow pacing throughout it, this sudden change in tone made me snap my attention back immediately almost as if somebody had just shot me and in turn, I couldn't look away from the screen. That feeling I felt is kind of like how you react to a jumpscare in a horror movie. Because of this, I finished the movie in a very positive way and it left me in awe.If you look at this film's Wikipedia page, you will see that a ton of soundtracks have been written for this film. Currently, there are 19 soundtracks written for it (or 20 if you count the original one written for it in 1929). This is actually pretty impressive because most movies I've seen only contain 1 soundtrack. I'm sure that some are more popular than others but I know that I'll never be able to find and listen to all of them. I don't know what the one I listened to is called, but I sure loved it. It contained many slow and relaxing songs to it and it also contained many upbeat and jazzy moments in certain sequences. I loved the classical music used in it and I think that it perfectly fit the movie's scenes of normal city life. It was neither too quiet and unnoticeable nor too loud and distracting.Another big reason I loved this film so much is that it simply provided me with a feeling of relaxation. Relaxation is a trait that many movies don't have nowadays. It is not a bad thing for a movie to have action sequences or fast-paced moments as they are often necessary depending on what a film is about, but it is always refreshing to watch a tame and entertaining movie. This is a film which you can watch if you're feeling stressed out and want to be calmed down. I don't recall many other movies which contain this. The only other ones I've seen which feel relaxing are "Russian Ark" and "Samsara" (both of these are some of my favorites ever made).I have seen many people ask the question "If you could go back in time to see one movie, which one would you see?" I could always pick one of my favorite films ever made such as "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Saving Private Ryan", and "12 Angry Men". Also, I could definitely say "Citizen Kane", "The Godfather", or many other famous movies considered to be some of the best films ever made, but I'm going to have to say this one by far. Most if not all of the film techniques in this film weren't found in earlier movies (even when they were, they weren't used too much in them) and I can only imagine how impressed movie goers were when they watched this film for the first time. I would probably be very impressed with this one as well and it would've probably given me one of the best movie experiences I would ever see in my life. That is why I'm going to have to pick this one.In conclusion, this movie is definitely a masterpiece. It has definitely received a ton of praise over the years and it is showing no sign of slowing down. In 2012, the "Sight and Sound" poll recognized it as the 8th best movie ever made. Also, in 2014, it was ranked as the best documentary ever made. All of the praise that this movie received is justified. It pioneered different film techniques, it has beautiful and fitting music in the background, and it provides a feeling of relaxation not found in many movies. I can understand why someone might get bored while watching this film but I don't have that problem. Even if I did, I can understand why it's a masterpiece. Now that I've watched this movie, I'm interested in checking out some other silent films and I will be probably watching them sometime in the future. For all I know, they might impress me a lot too.

Vertov utilises the whole array of available camera and montage techniques to portray a normal day in Russia, while also showing how it is made; fast motion, slow motion, stop-motion, freeze-frame, thawed-frame, playing film backwards, double exposure, etc. A part of the film comes over as a documentary of how a film is made, namely the balance of focus and the daring stunts of early cameramen.What is being filmed is typical for the 'agitprop', i.e. everyday life of the proletariat, here sometimes put in contrast with the lavish lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. Vertov put some dialectical elements in the montage, most notably the diagonals in the earlier parts of the film, other times he draws parallels, e.g. between the working class and the cameraman/director (in my opinion Vertov did this to assert he and other filmmakers belonged to the same group) or between the washing of a woman and the washing of the city.Other communist elements are also present, the one that stood out the most was the glorifying of machines and the relation between man and machine (the total opposite of Japanese New-wave). For the most part the film escapes explicit propaganda, mostly due to the non-narrative form (it is easy to see why Stalin stopped this kind of cinema, as propaganda it did not work for many did not understand the meaning behind the dialectic montage). I needed to acclimate to the normal way of viewing movement after the film had ended, being made strangely aware of the similarities and differences between my eyes and the 'eye' of the camera. It had an hypnotic, psychedelic effect.To conclude, I would recommend this film, but only to those who have some background information on the Russian constructivism, as otherwise this could come over as too nonsensical and pointless (like all those purely structuralist films, e.g. Wavelength).

I had picked this up due to academic interest and expected that this would be a bit boring and that I need to explicitly consider the fact that this movie was made way back in 1929.Well, the movie was very engaging. Far from boring, it challenged me to keep up with the multitude of content that the movie presents. It is excellent in everyday-life content , presenting so much of real life. True real content.The extent of passion and effort that has gone into the making of the movie is also striking.Amazing number of techniques used making the movie engaging even today.