| "Life caught unawares": Vertov's goal of filming the unmediated reality of social life quickly ran up against the obtrusiveness of the camera and the tendency of people to react to its presence. So the camera-eye group developed techniques to accommodate the camera, and reactions to it, within the film . |
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The camera oversees, and even rules, life in Vertov's city. (The city itself, composed of shots from Odessa, Kiev, and Moscow, is a creation of the cinematic process.)
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While others react to the man with the movie camera within the film, the man on the right is looking at the other cameraman (presumably Vertov himself) who is filming the meta-scene.
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| The gaze: Showing the camera's ability to invade the privacy of individuals (especially women), Vertov anticipates later filmic insights about "the gaze." |
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The opening shots of a woman awakening and dressing were obviously done with the woman's cooperation. That is not always the case: see below.
(The woman here is sometimes identified as Elizabeth Svilova, Vertov's wife and editor, though she clearly isn't.) |
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Later Vertov separately shows three people whom the camera awakens from sleeping in public. This woman is clearly not pleased and quickly exits. (Realistic shots of apparently homeless people did not endear Vertov to Soviet authorities.)
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| Spectatorship: |
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In the sports sequence, Vertov plays with spectatorship. The watchers within the film are parallel to us watching the film.
Svilova's pairing of genders among athletes and watchers indicates that people's spectatorial interest is not limited to physical feats. |
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