The whole film seems like one continuous cut. Sure, that
what movies are, but with no real plot to the film that’s what it feels like.
Considering the average shot length in 1929 was 11.2 seconds, the 2.3 second
shot length in Man with a Movie Camera
must have been mind-blowing to see. Dziga Vertov felt that cinema was stuck in
the tradition of stage plays and needed its own identity, something purely
cinematic. He felt that movies could move at the speed of our minds – thus the
editing in this film is clearly there to stimulate.
Most of the editing is manipulative. If this film was just a
movie about a day in the life of a 1929 Russian, then the editing wouldn’t need
to be so frenetic. There is no discernable rhythm. The film is definitely
slower at the beginning and speeds up as the work day unfolds.
Considering, the time period, this was a brand new technique
Vertov’s personality is shown. It goes without saying that editing in Man with a Movie Camera is a major
language of the film. Though, at times, it feels like Vertov was editing things
just to edit them, or just to show what you could do with a camera. That’s not
an entirely negative comment either.
