Dziga Vertov

Kino Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov Review

The book is quite interesting in telling a series of essays on film theory.  The book is mainly on journal entries, letters, and movie proposals which is very worthy in addressing its main point. Dziga Vertov is a Soviet Union film director and film theorist who strongly believes in pure documentary film. And this book is one good example of this documentary film. In this book also he was able to make great ideas on the expansion of the art of film and the challenges it faced today giving the simplest insights of cinema art.

Dziga is also a believer in Kino-Pravda or film truth which is often discuss in his writings including this book. This document calls every reader to always find the truth.  He always looksbeyond cinema to deeper truth of science and philosophy. As describe the kino-eye is able to capture the truth fully than the human eye. In the end, the book suggest that all types of camera tricks are acceptable if it leads to deeper truth and knowledge. The important element in his Kino-eye idea is that there are no sets, no scripts, no actors and no hidden camera as much as possible only the reality and drama of life.

In his works, he begins with a theme and not a story. And the theme follows through a various shot and some level of narrative continuity. He also used some montage techniques that were popular in Soviet Union at that time. His writing shows a metric montage were it create an aesthetic flow that brings out the movie’s theme. This means that there is a camera standby that will cover the interesting stuff. He promotes the Leninist ratio of film distribution which includes 45% kino-eye, 30% scientific and 25% artistic drama. He strongly point out that a correct notion of a movie can expand to different horizons and can still have an audience that understand it.  And movie film is a record of reality and time.

His discussion on the ideal production is the most interesting part of the book. As indicated, he wanted a film laboratory and workers who follow his own ideals. For his movie film he only wants light and noiseless equipment for shooting. And any thing that is shot any time can be used any time as well. The only problem with his ideas is that he seems obsess with realism and truth but at the same time he ignores the propensity for falsehood in montage editing.  That even if all the elements of production phase is geared toward realism, the movie editor can lie in the post production. He even cut things that did not happen at the same time as if they happen. 

His snippets in the film are mere anecdotal evidence and not really the truth.  Especially when he used it in attacking the Western democracy ideal that he does not even know about. This brings to a different view, where he loves communism and the communist ideal but complain that the system itself is destroying him. As the last point, this book is interesting but quite dragging and seems only work for those who is interested in film theory.