MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

Unlike Truffaut’s La Nuit Americaine where we have an outsider’s view of the arduous effort required in the filmmaking Industry, this film provides a more abstract viewpoint of the process. Both films relay a similar message in different contexts and visual representations. For example, the danger of film production in Man With A Movie Camera can be seen when he goes to extreme measures to get the shot he wants i.e. climbing intimidating heights. Similarly in Truffaut’s film, this same aspect is represented by the use of stunt double for the dangerous scene involving the car and the cliff.

The editing used in the film is also extremely noteworthy and especially groundbreaking considering the time period in which the film was released. Through various techniques that manipulate our perspective of time (done through series, montage and collision editing) Initially, it was difficult to derive a story line from the film due to the lack of prior information, establishment scenes or title cards. However, by the end of the film it was clearly a documentation of the process of filmmaking and all the potential possibilities enabled through the apparatus of the camera.