Dziga Vertov's films

pp. 65-137

in: Adelheid Heftberger, Digital humanities and film studies, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

Before I introduce the individual films and their historical context, as well as their formal characteristics, I would like to provide an overview of Vertov's film theory, which, especially in the early years, he repeatedly promoted in manifestos and lectures. In part influenced by the constructivists and the futurists, Vertov rejected the aesthetic category of the composition of a work of art. The artist was no longer to be perceived as the creator, but as an engineer and constructor who must solve the technical problems of his artistic production in an active process. The accent is on the process-related serial nature of the procedure and on the rational control of the material's treatment. Vertov adopted the concept of factography ("literatura fakta"), developed by futurism and formalism, and attempted to apply it to the medium of film. Like other revolutionary film-makers, Eisenstein and Vertov wanted to escape the then-customary division of genres into melodrama, adventure film or slapstick and found various solutions to the problem. Eisenstein proclaimed his theory of the "montage of attractions' and moved from the films of agitation and attraction to a hybrid which linked moments of melodrama and documentary film together. By contrast, Vertov began from the newsreel genre, as it was at first the only one to achieve the presentation of actualities required by the factographs, and, using his form of editing, developed from it a kind of rhythmical poetic documentary film.