---
title: "Man with a Movie Camera"
year: 1929
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera"
fi1m_id: "man-with-a-movie-camera"
imdb_id: "tt0019760"
tmdb_id: 26317
wikidata_id: "Q829250"
fi1m_score: 88
critics_score: 86
critics_reviews: 14
published: "2026-09-17"
review_updated: "2026-09-25"
updated: "2026-09-25T00:13:27.195269+00:00"
region: "TH"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Directed by Dziga Vertov · 1h 08m · Documentary

## Identity

Man with a Movie Camera

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** man-with-a-movie-camera
- **IMDb ID:** tt0019760
- **TMDB ID:** 26317
- **Wikidata ID:** Q829250
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019760/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/26317, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q829250

**Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 86 from 14 reviews

*In a sentence:* The cinema seats unfold themselves before anyone sits down, and nothing in the next hour sits still either

> Vertov’s silent day in a Soviet city is still the quickest lesson there is in what a camera and a cutting bench can do. It is also propaganda, and it tires before it finishes. See it anyway, and see where the tricks came from.

## Synopsis

A title card sets the rules before a frame of the city appears: no intertitles, no script, no actors, no sets. Dziga Vertov’s film then keeps to them. The Cameraman (Mikhail Kaufman) climbs out of the top of a camera the size of a house. A cinema fills, its seats folding down on their own, a projector is threaded and an orchestra lifts its bows. Then dawn in a Soviet city stitched together from Odessa, Kyiv and Kharkiv: a woman asleep with her arm across her face, mannequins in shop windows, a tramp on a bench, pigeons on a ledge. The Cameraman shoulders his tripod and sets off. Blinds go up, the woman washes and blinks, taps run, trams leave the depot, and at a bench with a loupe the editor, Elizaveta Svilova, sorts the day into strips of film.

## Review

Dziga Vertov opens with a promise most films would not dare make: no titles, no story, no actors, no sets. What follows is a day in a Soviet city, dawn to dusk, shot by Mikhail Kaufman and Gleb Troyanski and cut by Elizaveta Svilova, in which the only recurring figure is the man carrying the camera. Vertov believed the lens saw better than the eye and wanted 68 minutes of proof. He got it. It was made in 1929 and it is still the fastest demonstration of what film can do that we know of. It is also a piece of state advertising, and by the last third it has started to repeat itself.

The first ten minutes are the film’s best. Kaufman climbs out of the top of a camera the size of a building. A cinema stands empty; the seats fold down on their own, and the audience arrives to fill them. The projectionist threads the reel, the orchestra lifts its bows, and the film we are watching begins inside the film we are watching. Then Kaufman shoots the city before it is awake: a woman sleeping, mannequins in shop windows, a tramp on a bench, empty tramlines. He frames the dummies and the sleepers the same way, and for a minute you cannot tell which is which.

The editor is the star, and Vertov knows it. Svilova appears at her bench, sorting strips of film into pigeonholes, and the picture stops so that we can watch her work. Before that she has cut a woman’s blinking eyes against a set of window blinds, so that the city seems to open its eyelids. She has laid an eye over a lens so the two blink together, split the screen and sent one tram through another, frozen a galloping horse mid-stride and turned it into a frame on her table. We grinned like fools through all of this, which is not our habit. What did it was the speed. Svilova cuts faster than most films do now, and every cut is a joke or an argument, usually both.

Kaufman, on screen, is stuntman and clown. He lies between the rails while a train passes over him, hangs off a moving car with his tripod, straddles a chimney, rides a bucket down a mine. The point, made and remade, is that the camera can go anywhere a body can and several places a body cannot. Troyanski shares the photography credit, and the film never says which shots are whose.

Now the caveat. This is a Soviet film and it sells the state as hard as any poster. Everyone works, everyone works cheerfully, and the pistons and the typists and the women at the switchboard all move to the same beat, because Svilova has cut them to it. The only unhappy people in it are a drunk and a beggar, and both are there to be laughed at. We did not believe the city, and we do not think you should, though the film is so pleased with itself that disbelieving it feels churlish.

It also tires. Somewhere past the fortieth minute, with another factory floor cut against another crowd, we caught ourselves waiting for the next trick instead of watching the one in front of us, and then felt ashamed, because Kaufman had plainly risked his neck for it. The closing minutes pick the pace up again, in a way we will leave you to find, but the stretch before them is the price of admission. It is silent, too, and the music will have been added decades later; the copy that reached British cinemas on 31 July 2015 has one score and older discs have others. If yours fights the cutting, turn it down.

The tagline on the restoration calls this the greatest documentary ever made. We distrust that kind of sentence on sight, and here we distrust the noun as well. It is not a documentary in the sense the word now carries, because the city in it does not exist; it was cut together from three. It is a demonstration, 68 minutes long, of a machine working out what it is for. Watch it in one sitting with the lights off, and count how many of its tricks you have since seen in adverts.

*Fi1m score 88, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come away from Vertov’s film exhilarated, and the praise nearly all lands in one place: the editing. Review after review singles out the speed of the cutting, the double exposures, split screens and trick shots, and the way the film keeps turning round to show the cameraman and the editor at work, so that making the film becomes its subject. Several note that without a plot or intertitles it still holds attention from dusk to dawn across its three cities, and most find its methods as fresh now as anything currently in cinemas.

Reservations are few and mostly sit beside the film rather than on it. Slant Magazine faults a particular Blu-ray transfer, not the film; Eye for Film finds Michael Nyman’s added score occasionally drowns the images; Little White Lies allows that the utopian outlook can look naive. The spread is narrow. The two lower scores belong to reviews whose text is not available, so no specific complaint attaches to them.

## Straight answers

**Is Man with a Movie Camera worth watching?**

*Man with a Movie Camera* is worth watching for anyone curious where film's tricks came from, and we scored it 88. Elizaveta Svilova's cutting is still faster than most films manage now, and the first ten minutes are the best of it. It is also Soviet state advertising, and it repeats itself past the fortieth minute, so watch it in one sitting with the lights off.

**How long is Man with a Movie Camera, and what is it rated?**

*Man with a Movie Camera* runs 1h 08m. It is a documentary film.

**Where can I watch Man with a Movie Camera in Thailand?**

*Man with a Movie Camera* is not on any streaming or rental service in Thailand at the moment. It is available in 9 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How does Man with a Movie Camera compare to Koyaanisqatsi?**

*Man with a Movie Camera* is the sharper and shorter of the two, and [*Koyaanisqatsi*](https://film.one/film/koyaanisqatsi) the more hypnotic. Vertov's silent day in a Soviet city celebrates the machine rhythm; Godfrey Reggio's time-lapse cities, with Philip Glass's music, present it as a warning, though the ecological case is thin. Pick Vertov for the cutting, Reggio for the photography and score.

**What should I watch after Man with a Movie Camera?**

After *Man with a Movie Camera*, try [*Koyaanisqatsi*](https://film.one/film/koyaanisqatsi) (1982, Fi1m 82): Time-lapse cities and Philip Glass; the machine rhythm again, this time as a warning. Then [*Sans Soleil*](https://film.one/film/sans-soleil) (1983, Fi1m 82): Chris Marker’s essay film puts the cutting bench in charge and adds a voice.

### Reviews we read (14)

- **Little White Lies**, Trevor Johnston (5/5/5): The critic praises its thrilling technical trickery and inventive editing that creates an ecstatically cinematic experience, highlighting its role as a foundation stone for modern cinema and a democratic vision of the medium. He notes its invigorating return to visual language basics despite potential naivety in its utopian outlook. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/man-with-a-movie-camera-1929)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): The critic praises the film's revolutionary fast-paced montage and self-reflexive structure that makes the act of filmmaking its subject. Vertov's innovative approach to editing and imagery is singled out as still fresh and influential decades later. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-man-with-a-movie-camera-1929)
- **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (5/5): The review hails it as a thrilling silent masterpiece that teaches everything about cinema's possibilities through pure movement and visual trickery, noting its political and feminist elements alongside innovative techniques like fast cutting and double exposure. It emphasizes the film's purity and excitement as cinema in its rawest form. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/man-with-a-movie-camera)
- **Empire**, Ian Freer (90/100, inferred): Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent stunner is a love letter to Soviet urban life from dusk to dawn, rendered with every cinematic technique in the book. It is praised as a foundational work of creative documentary and montage. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/man-movie-camera-review/)
- **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the restored 1929 film a dazzling firework show of symphonic montage across three cities, full of trick effects, multiple exposures and poetic pandemonium that anticipates later cinematic innovations. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/b6c6ca0c-36ac-11e5-b05b-b01debd57852)
- **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as an intoxicating gateway for cinephiles whose innovative editing and self-reflexive structure remain revelatory nearly a century later, while criticizing the specific Blu-ray transfer as inferior to prior restorations. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/man-with-a-movie-camera-blu-ray-review-dziga-vertov/)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a hypnotic masterpiece of Soviet avant-garde cinema, praising its daring experimental editing techniques that create a fluid, self-referential structure without plot or intertitles. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/man-with-a-movie-camera-1798195196)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Vertov’s experimental silent documentary as a visionary and transformative work that remains dizzying, thrilling and sexy, with punk spirit in its dense ideas and energetic transformation of reality through trick shots and self-reflexive filmmaking. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/30/man-with-a-movie-camera-review)
- **The Independent**, Geoffrey Macnab (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film breathtakingly inventive, while noting its eerie moments and unusual erotic undercurrent. The formal playfulness and the pristine restoration with Alloy Orchestra’s new soundtrack stand out. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/man-with-a-movie-camera-film-review-soviet-propaganda-picture-has-some-eerie-moments-10428539.html)
- **The New York Times** (65/100, inferred): The article text is inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. Its specific praise or complaint is likewise unavailable. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/06/movies/film-review-cameras-were-rolling-the-day-time-stopped.html)
- **Total Film** (65/100, inferred): The page identifies this as one of its new-release reviews, but the review text is not available here. Its verdict and specific praise or criticism therefore cannot be determined. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/movies-to-watch-31-july-2015/)
- **Paste**, Alex Lei (90/100, inferred): The critic hails it as one of the definitive statements on non-fiction filmmaking, still stunning today. They single out its exploration of the mechanical kino-eye revealing the patterns and rhythms of modern industrial life without reliance on intertitles or staging. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/documentaries/man-with-a-movie-camera-dziga-vertov-soviet-revolution-movement)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic describes Vertov's film as a joyful celebration of post-revolutionary Russian life captured through innovative camerawork and editing that positions the cameraman as documenter, magician and stuntman. The added Michael Nyman score enhances the frantic energy, though it occasionally overpowers the images, while the work's enduring innovation surpasses much contemporary Hollywood output. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/michael-nymans-man-with-a-movie-camera-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
- **The Skinny**, Lewis Porteous (★★★★): Dziga Vertov's uncategorisable masterpiece comes to Blu-ray from Masters of Cinema. Little can be added to the praise heaped upon it over the years, other than to emphasise quite how entertaining it is to even the most casual viewer; when tempos slow down or achieve moments of dizzying catharsis, the effect is utterly disarming. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/man-with-a-movie-camera)

## Details

- **Director:** Dziga Vertov
- **Director:** Dziga Vertov
- **Writer:** Dziga Vertov
- **Cinematography:** Mikhail Kaufman, Gleb Troyanski
- **Editor:** Elizaveta Svilova
- **Producer:** Star Mishkel-Eneva
- **Cast:** Mikhail Kaufman as The Cameraman
- **Runtime:** 1h 08m
- **First release (SU):** 8 January 1929
- **Genres:** Documentary
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtTlgxtoqhg

## Where to watch in Thailand

Not streaming, renting or buying in Thailand at the last check.

Also available in: AT, BR, CA, CH, DE, FI, GB, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Berlin: Symphony of a Great City* (1927): The German city film Vertov was racing; calmer, prettier, and much less bothered about you.
- *À propos de Nice* (1930): Jean Vigo turns the same tricks on the idle rich and does not hide his contempt.
- *Koyaanisqatsi* (1982), Fi1m 82: Time-lapse cities and Philip Glass; the machine rhythm again, this time as a warning. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/koyaanisqatsi.md)
- *Sans Soleil* (1983), Fi1m 82: Chris Marker’s essay film puts the cutting bench in charge and adds a voice. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sans-soleil.md)
- *London* (1994): Patrick Keiller walks a city with a camera and nothing happens, wittily, for ninety minutes.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera