Organized Chaos in “Man with a Movie Camera”

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When watching “Man with a Movie Camera”, I strongly kept in mind that it was an experimental film, a film that would probably throw me off guard and would have completely disorientate my sense of what movies are supposed to convey. However, despite the rather shocking introduction to this new kind of film, I found myself searching, and occasionally finding narrative in the movie. Through these short, choppy narratives I tried to relate to in the movie, I also came across multiple metaphors of life. The film did bore me a bit, but these narratives and metaphors I was combing through in the movie, made it seem like a puzzle. In fact, because this was such a different sort of movie, I was constantly trying to put these chopped pieces together (like a narrative movie) and scrutinize the sort of editing done, the timing of editing, and such.

In the beginning the movie starts out slow and sort of quiet. The empty city streets are shown and then a sleeping girl is shown. There is quietness, serenity and peacefulness. Everybody is still resting. And then the girl wakes up and slowly gets ready for work as city people start streaming into the streets. Also we see trains and buses getting ready to departure and start their day within the city. By time the girl is washing her face and is ready to start the day, trains are moving within the city and buses are departing their ways. Also, within these shots of the rising city, we see a woman sweeping the street and also another person hosing down a statue. To me, all of this signified the development of the Soviet Union. As watching this, I was thinking of the rise of the industrial Soviet Union. At first the country was quiet, resting and normal and then a seemingly chaos erupts-the country wakes up to be productive. To be successful. To bring out the full potential of the day.

I think the organized chaos of the industrial revolution of the Soviet Union was portrayed through the rest of the film, especially the trains. The trains were shown multiple times throughout the film, in various different ways. The camera was utilized in a way to show the train operating in different ways, thus, society operating in different ways and yet all conjoining together to be productive. The scene that comes to mind the most is when multiple trains are shown moving into the city and though they cross within what seems inches of one another, they never crash into one another. To me this signified society all functioning in different parts and different paths and yet being industrious together.

Overall, I pictured the film being all about the Soviet Union society at the time. The cinematography of the film seems to be a mess with the various camera positions and speeds but I think this simply illuminates the various lives of people within the then developing nation. The craziness of the cinematography shows the craziness of life then. However, I honestly thought it was beautiful that I did feel a considerable amount of chaos and unconnected feeling to the film at first and then saw the splendor of how the chaos came together to make sense. To me the movie depicted life in a way that anyone could paint their views onto it and decide what it meant. And I saw the film as depicting a sense of pride over the organized chaos during the industrial revolution of the soviet Union.

23 thoughts on “Organized Chaos in “Man with a Movie Camera””

  1. I appreciate your ability to find meaning within a movie that was, at times, boring to you as a viewer. The choice of analysis of this movie despite that feeling displays a valuable skill in film critique.
    I associate with your review of the movie conveying the “organized chaos” of the Soviet Union at the time, especially through the imagery of the trains almost colliding in the bustling city. I think that the trains also provided the organized chaos of the people experiencing that transition and were symbolic of their anxiety in that (somewhat forced) pursuit into modernity.
    I think the use of the “chaotic” cinematography was perhaps to show the disjointed nature of societies transition.
    Again, I appreciate your ability to evolve your view towards the movie throughout watching it. I agree with the connection to the value of the movie as well, that any person might be able to attach their personal interpretation onto it and benefit from the insight that may provide.

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  2. I agree with your statement about trying to find meaning in this rather tedious film. I also found it to be very boring at times but the crescendo of the music is what kept many people awake and alert with the film. You are correct in that it portrayed the industrialization and growing city life throughout the Soviet Union and it gave us a picture of life back then.

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  3. It was hard for me to find a narrative in this movie, I felt it was especially hard to understand why he was showing such random shots. It was a confusing experimental movie, the editing made it harder to understand but I agree the repeated images pointed out the rise of the Soviet Union, and in that chaos there was a togetherness about life and technology converging. I liked that you at least you tried to put the pieces of this chaotic puzzle in an interesting way.

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