A dawn-to-dusk view of the Soviet Union offers a montage of urban Russian life, showing the people of the city at work and at play, and the machines that endlessly whirl to keep the metropolis alive.

An absolute classic in the art of cinema, Man With A Movie Camera is available on DVD just in time for the 75th anniversary of its release. The debut film by radical film theorist Dziga Vertov, the film is full of the rapid editing, split screen and other cinematic effects that we are used to seeing in films today. One can only imagine how invigorating it must have been to see this in 1929.

For inventiveness alone, most contemporary films cannot hold a candle to Man With A Movie Camera, yet the film itself is startlingly simple. No narrative, no actors, no plot, just a man with a camera walking the streets, filming what he sees. The people are dressed a little differently, and the signs on the streets are in another language, but other than that, we could easily be looking at people from today. The rush hours, the urban congestion, the pick-up basketball games, carrying on in the beer pubs after work, it all looks so now, so modern.

The montage, the photographic effects, these are the things that stand out, and that is the point. Vertov wants to rub our faces in it. Beneath it all there is a story going on. It is the story of people, of life. One of the more poignant scenes takes place in a county office where a couple has come to sign their divorce papers. Using only images, cutting from the couple in the office to the bustle of the city just outside, Vertov’s visuals tell us exactly what is going on. The use of image in Man With A Movie Camera is something that most filmmakers today just do not seem capable of.

The new score by Michael Nyman, written only a few years ago, matches the film perfectly. From the hustle and bustle of the streets, to the calm of a sleeping woman, the score perfectly compliments the images.

Man With A Movie Camera captures the vigorous motion of people of work and at play. The beauty of the film makes it a must for anyone with a love of cinema. For further reading, see Vertov’s collected works, Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov.

The transfer itself is excellent. The grain that we see comes from the 35mm print from which the DVD was taken. Considering the age of the film, the image is as pristine as we are likely to get. Man With A Movie Camera is presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

There is nothing to indicate that this is anything other than a standard mono transfer. As far as the film itself goes, that shouldn’t matter (it is a silent film), but the new score by Michael Nyman comes through a little muted. Nyman put a good deal of research into the period to capture the score, so a higher quality transfer would have been nice.

The special features on this disc consist of biographical sketches of Michael Nyman (composer), Mikhail and Boris Kaufman (cameramen), and Dziga Vertov. The sketches all give some interesting information with out going into detail.