David A. Kaufman (Russian)

David A. Kaufman (Russian)

• David A. Kaufman (Russian)

• Kinoki team - Vertov's experimental film group

• Elizaveta Svilova (editor), Dziga Vertov (director),

• Mikhail Kaufman (cinematographer)

Vertov saw cinema as a close relationship between the filming process and human thought.

• Vertov saw cinema as a close relationship between the filming process and human thought.

• Vertov saw human perception as having limitations compared to the more perfectible “machine eye” of motion picture camera.

• Vertov’s aesthetic position demanded anti-narrative, anti-fictional forms.

1. Vertov's two credos

• 1. Vertov's two credos

• "life as it is "

• —— to record life as it would be without

• the camera present

• "life caught unawares"

• —— to record life when surprised, and

• perhaps provoked, by the presence

• of a camera.

2. Technology as medium for the text

• 2. Technology as medium for the text

• the unique qualities of cinema :

• "a truly international absolute language “

• rejecting elements taken from other arts: "a film without

• a scenario" [script]; "without aid of theatre" [sets, actors];

• "a film without intertitles" [written words]

•  depicting the entire process of cinema from camera to

• editing to projection in a theater, including audience reactions

• structuring metaphor

• exploiting almost every technique unique to cinema,

• particularly editing (montage)

• self-referentiality: the film records its own birth and constantly

• foregrounds its filmic nature, including the artificiality of its

• construction

the rise of poetic film experiments Cine-clubs

• the rise of poetic film experiments Cine-clubs

• a wave of “city symphonies”

the city symphony film genre

• the city symphony film genre

• an avant-garde (experimental) film

• a visual impression of the city's daily life

• non-narrative style

• a musical score for an orchestra to accompany

• shots and scenes are cut together based on relationships

• of image, motion, point of view, and thematic content

actual rain：a rain shower in Amsterdam

• actual rain：a rain shower in Amsterdam

• abstract rain: collection of rain showers

• poetic rain：

• — presenting patterns and details of a rain shower

• — conveying a subjective feeling and impression of

• what a rain shower is like

subjective interpretations of its subject

• subjective interpretations of its subject

• sacrificing the conventions of continuity editing,

• and representing reality through a series of fragments,

• subjective impressions, incoherent acts,

• and loose associations

• selecting raw material and arranging them into particular associations and patterns that involve temporal rhythms and spatial juxtaposition

• in favor of creating a particular mood or tone