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Update 'content/syllabus/fifthsyllabustest.md'

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Teagan C. Lance 2021-09-08 08:27:01 -07:00
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@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ title: Fifth Syllabus (Test)
**by Alexander Carson**
<br>
*A sexy reading of Dziga Vertov’s **Man With A Movie Camera** in which the author explores the parallels between the camera eye of the film and the male sex organ.*
*Author’s note: I have chosen to insert youtube clips throughout my analysis—this is, after all, an online journal. **Man With A Movie Camera** has appeared with several different musical scores in recent decades. I have chosen the Cinematic Orchestra version. The reader/viewer should feel free to mute the accompaniment if it seems distracting or undesirable—sound has no bearing on the analysis presented here.*
@ -25,7 +27,10 @@ Before leaping into an analysis of Vertov’s chef-d’oeuvre, it is worth notin
Though much of Man with a Movie Camera’s blatant sexual impulsiveness is not until much later on, an early sequence foreshadows it all quite palpably. A mere 10 minutes into the film we see a young woman rise from bed, put her stockings on, and turn away from the camera while removing her nightgown. In close-up, the camera studies her back as her hands reach around to fasten a brassiere. Cutting back to a wider shot, we see the woman standing only in her underclothes and stockings before she pulls on a slip. Vertov immediately cuts away to a close-up of the Movie Camera as a man’s hands hastily remove a short, wide-angle lens, and replace it with a markedly longer, telephoto one. This erection is quite pronounced, and indeed well warranted! Showing a woman dressing is more seemly and less lurid than showing a woman undressing, but is it any less sexy?
## “Part 2” of *Man With a Movie Camera*
This section covers roughly minutes 9-19 of the complete film:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeKKeiXTBos
This section covers roughly minutes 9-19 of the complete film:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AeKKeiXTBos" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
[Link to Part 2 of *Man With a Movie Camera*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeKKeiXTBos)
Nearly 21 minutes in, a sequence commences featuring the Camera Operator (presumably Mikhail Kaufman, Vertov’s younger brother and principal cameraman during this time) perched dangerously atop a moving car as he photographs the passengers in nearby horse-drawn carriages. The Cameraman furiously cranks his camera, propelling it into action, obsessively capturing the images before him. His gestures are explicitly masturbatory—the Camera is manically tugged upon (dziga, dziga, dziga…) as the operator hunches over his tool of capture, power, and domination. When a lady passenger mimics the crude crank-gesturing back at the Cameraman, is he embarrassed or intimidated? No, for he is in control! It is clear that Vertov’s technique is beyond mere voyeurism. There is nothing covert about his Cameraman’s imposition on his subjects. His camera has empowered him to subjugate them in a way. Vertov presents a series of images as still frames immediately following the precarious carriage sequence—these images of carriage passengers are held for several seconds each (including one frightfully unattractive portrait of the indignant gesturing woman), exemplifying the filmmaker’s power. Having tagged and dominated these subjects with his Kino-tool, their images have become his captives. It is now the filmmaker’s privilege to exhibit them as he fancies!