Voted in first place in Sight & Sound’s 2015 Documentary Poll, and ranking as the eighth best film ever made in the Sight & Sound film critics poll, this dazzling amalgam of documentary and pure cinematic art is famous for its range of pioneering cinematic techniques – such as double exposure, slow motion and freeze frames. Released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, this digitally remastered presentation is accompanied by composer Michael Nyman’s celebrated score, and includes a selection of little-seen Vertov films as extra features.
Man with a Movie Camera
Moderator: MichaelB
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Man with a Movie Camera
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
I see no reason why this wouldn't replicate the same bonus films as the Flicker Alley set does. Hopefully a Chaplin Essanay and Photoplay Birth of a Nation announcements will be forthcoming also.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Although both sets will likely still be essential for the different score options.
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
I just had a listen to the Michael Nyman score on YouTube and am a little apprehensive about watching the whole movie with it (compare: Alloy vs. Nyman). The BFI released two versions of the film on DVD: the first with scores from the Alloy Orchestra and In the Nursery, and the second billed as "Michael Nyman's Man with a Movie Camera". The fact it was billed in such a way says a lot. For the Blu-ray, I'd rather just have "Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera" and hope other scores are included as alternatives; we know at least that the Alloy Orchestra score syncs up with the new restoration because Flicker Alley are including it (as did Lobster, so there shouldn't be an exclusivity issue either).
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
If the BFI or the Flicker Alley include the Cinematic Orchestra score, I'll buy that edition over any other.
If both of them include the score, I'll just have to buy both of them then...
If both of them include the score, I'll just have to buy both of them then...
-
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Agreed. It's a splendid score and I'll be disappointed if it never makes it onto a Blu-Ray release.manicsounds wrote:If the BFI or the Flicker Alley include the Cinematic Orchestra score, I'll buy that edition over any other.
If both of them include the score, I'll just have to buy both of them then...
- Minkin
- Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
I'll third this proposition. I won't hold my breath though, as alternative score options are becoming rarer these days (and I never seem to be happy with whatever score option is chosen as default).Calvin wrote:Agreed. It's a splendid score and I'll be disappointed if it never makes it onto a Blu-Ray release.manicsounds wrote:If the BFI or the Flicker Alley include the Cinematic Orchestra score, I'll buy that edition over any other.
If both of them include the score, I'll just have to buy both of them then...
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Did anybody else see the restoration at MoMA four years ago? I would love it if someone issued the historically appropriate score commissioned for that restoration, it was immense fun. From the program notes:
James said he was surprised to see Vertov's notes explaining that the film was a comedy, and having a score on the same wavelength makes an enormous difference. Here's an interview and sample, FWIW.MoMA presents the U.S. premiere of the EYE Film Institute Netherland’s definitive new restoration of Man with a Movie Camera, which allows us at long last to appreciate cameraman Mikhail Kaufman’s dazzling Constructivist frame compositions by preserving the film’s original full-frame image. The opening-night screening features Filmharmonia Ensemble performing Dennis James’ critically acclaimed score, which was inspired by original accompaniment notes left by Vertov himself. A breathtaking and often startlingly funny vision of cosmopolitan life in Moscow and Odessa, Man with a Movie Camera remains among the most radical, and imitated, films in cinema history. It is a film about its own creation, about the material process of work, about cinema as a means of transforming perception and spatial-temporal relations, about the power of kino-pravda (“film-truth”) to unmask and banish oppression and ignorance, and about a New Russia rising out of the ashes of the Old, symbolized by the spark of the movie projector coming to life at the start of the film, and by the famous trick shot of the Bolshoi Theatre collapsing on itself at the end.
-
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:57 am
- Location: East Coast, USA
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Not least because BFI will probably include the Nyman score in lossless quality, which is something Flicker Alley really struggle with--and there is really no excuse for that, given FA's high pricing tiers.swo17 wrote:Although both sets will likely still be essential for the different score options.
They had a good run in 2011-2012 with DTS-HD MA tracks, but of late, everything from them has been Dolby Digital.
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
People need to be bugging the BFI on Twitter and by other means if they want to see other scores included. They had no intention of originally including a Danish-intertitled version of Master of the House in the Dreyer boxset when I first contacted them, but I'm confident that highlighting the discussion on this forum played a part in convincing them to go the extra mile.
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Whilst I agree that people should be contacting them, I don't think the Danish version of Master of the House was ever going to be presented with anything but Danish intertitles by the BFI. The two version package is what Palladium have been shopping around, and indeed is what Criterion were offered (see here). Criterion didn't opt to only include the English version; indeed it is that version they completely discarded. They presented the Danish version but made new English intertitles for it, something the BFI would not have had access to. I imagine the person who said the BFI's release would only be English intertitles on Twitter simply didn't have all of the information at the time, as there's no way the BFI would have at any point planned to only include the "John & Mary" English version.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Are there any reviews or info on the French Dziga Vertov Blu-ray set?
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
tenia reviewed it here. He notes the absolutely awful compression (most noticeable in any of the caps with spaces of darkness), which I'm confident the BFI will rectify. Sadly, it appears to be a thing with Lobster's releases.
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Feel free to draw your own conclusions...EddieLarkin wrote:Whilst I agree that people should be contacting them, I don't think the Danish version of Master of the House was ever going to be presented with anything but Danish intertitles by the BFI. The two version package is what Palladium have been shopping around, and indeed is what Criterion were offered (see here). Criterion didn't opt to only include the English version; indeed it is that version they completely discarded. They presented the Danish version but made new English intertitles for it, something the BFI would not have had access to. I imagine the person who said the BFI's release would only be English intertitles on Twitter simply didn't have all of the information at the time, as there's no way the BFI would have at any point planned to only include the "John & Mary" English version.
But, for what it's worth, the BFI released a version in English in the past.
-
- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Disappointingly, the BFI have confirmed to me that the Nyman score will be the only one included.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
So the BFI will have the Nyman track while the Flicker/Lobster has the Alloy track.
Has the BFI said which other Vertov films or other extras would be included? With the price point at £19.99, I assume this will also be a 1-disc Blu-ray?
Has the BFI said which other Vertov films or other extras would be included? With the price point at £19.99, I assume this will also be a 1-disc Blu-ray?
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
So am I the only one here who saw the film with this particular score? A shame because again, it really changes the film into something like the anarchic of brilliance Looney Tunes and Carl Stalling...
hearthesilence wrote:Did anybody else see the restoration at MoMA four years ago? I would love it if someone issued the historically appropriate score commissioned for that restoration, it was immense fun. From the program notes:James said he was surprised to see Vertov's notes explaining that the film was a comedy, and having a score on the same wavelength makes an enormous difference. Here's an interview and sample, FWIW.MoMA presents the U.S. premiere of the EYE Film Institute Netherland’s definitive new restoration of Man with a Movie Camera, which allows us at long last to appreciate cameraman Mikhail Kaufman’s dazzling Constructivist frame compositions by preserving the film’s original full-frame image. The opening-night screening features Filmharmonia Ensemble performing Dennis James’ critically acclaimed score, which was inspired by original accompaniment notes left by Vertov himself. A breathtaking and often startlingly funny vision of cosmopolitan life in Moscow and Odessa, Man with a Movie Camera remains among the most radical, and imitated, films in cinema history. It is a film about its own creation, about the material process of work, about cinema as a means of transforming perception and spatial-temporal relations, about the power of kino-pravda (“film-truth”) to unmask and banish oppression and ignorance, and about a New Russia rising out of the ashes of the Old, symbolized by the spark of the movie projector coming to life at the start of the film, and by the famous trick shot of the Bolshoi Theatre collapsing on itself at the end.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Specs:
So it seems "Kino Eye/The Life Unexpected" (1924), "Enthusiasm The Symphony of the Donbass" (1931) from the US/French set will not be included.• Nyman’s celebrated score played by the Michael Nyman Band
• Audio commentary by Russian film scholar Yuri Tsivian
• Kino-Pravda No. 21 (Dziga Vertov, 1925, 35 mins): Newsreel devoted to Lenin on the anniversary of his death, with a new Mordant Music score
• One-Sixth of the Globe – ETV version (Dziga Vertov, 1925, 72 mins): ideologically charged documentary, presented in its specially-prepared ETV version, with a daring new soundtrack by Mordant Music
• Three Songs of Lenin (Dziga Vertov, 1935, 57 mins): poetic propaganda film reciting three admiring folk songs dedicated to the revolutionary leader
• David Collard on Three Songs of Lenin and WH Auden (2009, 11 mins)
• Simon Callow reads WH Auden’s verses from Three Songs of Lenin (2009, 4 mins)
• Alternative Three Songs of Lenin subtitles incorporating WH Auden’s verses
- What A Disgrace
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
- Contact:
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
I guess I'm double dipping on the Flicker Alley set!
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Annoying, though One-Sixth of the Globe appears to be a BFI exclusive, though it better be in HD! If it is, including the two missing films would bring the Blu-ray runtime to over 6 hours so it's understandable they've had to drop some. Though I think a Killing of a Chinese Bookie solution would have been best, i.e. press a 1000 copy limited edition with a second Blu-ray for the missing films.
- tenia
- Ask Me About My Bassoon
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
The Beaver captures are appalling. While it reminds how blatantly bad the encode on the FA set (and the Lobster one) is (I mean, look at the X01 cap), it seems like the BFI has used an older restoration, one with seemingly a much lower detail level (and much more damage).
- Roscoe
- Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:40 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
I did see that MOMA screening, it was really impressive. That was the second time in about a year I'd seen the film on a big screen with live music, once the previous July at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, with live music by the Alloy Orchestra, and then the following April with music by Dennis James and a small ensemble. It really is an overwhelming experience.hearthesilence wrote:Did anybody else see the restoration at MoMA four years ago? I would love it if someone issued the historically appropriate score commissioned for that restoration, it was immense fun. From the program notes:James said he was surprised to see Vertov's notes explaining that the film was a comedy, and having a score on the same wavelength makes an enormous difference. Here's an interview and sample, FWIW.MoMA presents the U.S. premiere of the EYE Film Institute Netherland’s definitive new restoration of Man with a Movie Camera, which allows us at long last to appreciate cameraman Mikhail Kaufman’s dazzling Constructivist frame compositions by preserving the film’s original full-frame image. The opening-night screening features Filmharmonia Ensemble performing Dennis James’ critically acclaimed score, which was inspired by original accompaniment notes left by Vertov himself. A breathtaking and often startlingly funny vision of cosmopolitan life in Moscow and Odessa, Man with a Movie Camera remains among the most radical, and imitated, films in cinema history. It is a film about its own creation, about the material process of work, about cinema as a means of transforming perception and spatial-temporal relations, about the power of kino-pravda (“film-truth”) to unmask and banish oppression and ignorance, and about a New Russia rising out of the ashes of the Old, symbolized by the spark of the movie projector coming to life at the start of the film, and by the famous trick shot of the Bolshoi Theatre collapsing on itself at the end.
The music was very interesting. Dennis James spoke before the MOMA screening, saying that he had worked from some very detailed notes prepared by Vertov himself about what the music should be like, and James found that, to his surprise, the film was a comedy. His score, as a result, was a rather light affair, with piano, violin, some winds (including a rather too cute slide whistle) and percussion. It was a good effective score for the most part, very different from the Alloy Orchestra's more, shall we say, ENERGETIC score, which was also written in accordance with Vertov's notes. A good deal of the interest, for me, was in the differing tone of the respective scores.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Yikes, I might have to cancel the UK and go for the US or France edition.... The UK image is severely cropped.
- EddieLarkin
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Not only that, it's from a completely different master, presumably the same HD master used for the 2008 DVD. In other words, it isn't a patch on the FR or US discs, which use a brand new restoration. I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this has happened on the BFI's watch. Presumably their hands were tied for some reason?
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Man with a Movie Camera
Maybe the restoration doesn't synch up to the Nyman score?