--- title: "Man with a Movie Camera: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera" critics_score: 92 critics_reviews: 11 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): what the critics said Critics' score 92 from 11 reviews: 11 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are unanimous: eleven in, none mixed or negative. Most critics agree that Dziga Vertov’s silent film still feels fresh nearly a century on, and the praise clusters on the editing. The fast cutting, double exposures and trick shots that turn a day of Soviet city life into something closer to a piece of music are singled out again and again. Several also point to the self-reflexive structure, which makes the act of filming and editing the film’s own subject, and note that it manages without plot or intertitles. The spread is narrow, with every score between 80 and 100, and the reservations are small. Little White Lies wonders whether the film’s utopian outlook is naive. Eye for Film finds the added Michael Nyman score occasionally drowns the images. Slant’s complaint is not with the film at all but with one particular Blu-ray transfer, which it judges inferior to earlier restorations. Nobody dissents on the work itself. ## Little White Lies — Trevor Johnston Rating 5/5/5. 31 July 2015. 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 the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/man-with-a-movie-camera-1929) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 1 July 2009. 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 the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-man-with-a-movie-camera-1929) ## Time Out — Tom Huddleston Rating 5/5. 27 July 2015. 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 the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/man-with-a-movie-camera) ## Empire — Ian Freer Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 28 June 2015. 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 the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/man-movie-camera-review/) ## Financial Times — Nigel Andrews Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 July 2015. 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 the review](https://www.ft.com/content/b6c6ca0c-36ac-11e5-b05b-b01debd57852) ## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 18 February 2021. 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 the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/man-with-a-movie-camera-blu-ray-review-dziga-vertov/) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 2002. 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 the review](https://www.avclub.com/man-with-a-movie-camera-1798195196) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 July 2015. 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 the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/30/man-with-a-movie-camera-review) ## Paste — Alex Lei Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 9 April 2024. 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 the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/documentaries/man-with-a-movie-camera-dziga-vertov-soviet-revolution-movement) ## Eye for Film — Amber Wilkinson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 8 September 2002. 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 the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/michael-nymans-man-with-a-movie-camera-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## The Skinny — Lewis Porteous Rating ★★★★. 3 May 2016. 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 the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/man-with-a-movie-camera) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/man-with-a-movie-camera.md