持摄影机的人1929

这两部纪录片体现了原始与现代两个审美取向的端点。《北方的纳努克》不是呆板的记录景象式的再现生活，而是一部有人物、有情节、充满诗情画意的再现真实生活的纪录片。它歌颂美而回避丑的美学原则。他对现代文明的破坏力深有痛感却不直接触及，只是不遗余力的去描写、记录，乃至重演古老文明的善与美，并把自己的赞美之情注入其中。弗拉哈迪就是要展现给观众偏离在工业社会外的原始生活画面，在生产力低下的情况下，人类是弱者。人类面对自然人类要抗争，只是为了生存。弗拉哈迪甚至被称为理想主义者，为了达到足够的“原始生态”，他甚至让渔猎者用他们父辈的方法捕猎，即使他们已经有了更先进的方法。而相反，在《带摄影机的人》中维尔托夫就是紧跟着工业社会中的现代化元素和节奏。他贴切、真实地展现了刚刚开始的大都市时代的风貌，工业化普及的年代，机械战胜了自然，人类作为大自然的主人崛起了，人们开始重视自我表现。以至于维尔托夫开创性的运用了“自我暴露”拍摄手法，让摄影师多次出现在纪录片中，强调了手持摄影机的“人”的地位，摄影机这个机器延伸了人的眼睛，使其无所不到，无所不在。 对于真实的裁定有其直接与间接的切入点。在《北方的纳努克》中，弗拉哈迪与被摄对象长期交友共处，深入观察，准确地把握生活形态，并使被摄对象在镜头前高度自然。他精心选择拍摄自己感兴趣的自然景象和人物活动，北极居民原有的冰屋低矮、黑暗，不便拍摄，弗拉哈迪便搭建新的冰屋并把建屋过程摄入影片。所谓介入，就是巧妙地运用重演和主观干预，摒弃呆板的自然纪实，却又最大限度地追求客观效果。在纳努克他们一家早上起床的片段中，其实弗拉哈迪由于冰屋内光线无法拍摄，而将冰物削去一半，在露天的情况下拍摄。纳努克把孩子一个个从狭小的皮筏仓里抱上岸、充满戏剧效果的猎取海豹等生动情景，都是在生活真实基础上的艺术再现。而侧观《带摄影机的人》，维尔托夫影片主要分观众入席、城市黎明、人民的工作与休息、体育运动和艺术实践几部分，通过刻画人民生活的方方面面来呈现苏维埃新社会中的一个理想城市。而在这其中，每一个画面精致剪辑，讲求摄影机替代眼睛无所不到，将一个现代城市的真实生命力表现的极富节奏感与真实性。有时甚至采用隐蔽拍摄。片中关于运动员的运动一段，使用慢镜头放映，使得观众能仔细清晰地看到运动员在运动过程中的各个细节。慢镜头里的运动员身姿洒脱优美，有一种抒情的节奏感。 在记录故事中的形式差异。在《北方的纳努克》中弗拉哈迪用故事片手法表现非虚构的人生故事，使纪录片故事化，并以主观热情介入强化情节，塑造人物。茫茫冰原中，北美爱斯基摩人纳努克和他的家人为了生存，不得不乘坐独木舟或狗拉雪橇从一个地方迁移到另一个地方。他们的房屋是用坚硬的冰块砌起来的，而海象和海豹则是他们的主要食物。环境的恶劣和原始的生产力使纳努克一家的生存异常艰难，他们常在温度极低的条件下外出捕猎......该片高度真实地再现了北美爱斯基摩人的生活场景。相反《带摄影机的人》，维尔托夫却抓住了观众的眼球，维尔托夫让观众看什么，想什么似乎由他决定，他通过摄像机告诉观众电影眼睛超越了人的眼睛，他以这种狂妄的姿态打断了原有的叙事，让一切服从于影片的形式美和节奏美。社会的每一幕，穿衣的女人，挤车的公民，工厂的运行，一切都浑然天成。 艺术表现手法的差异。《北方的纳努克》采用长镜头大容量。在选择拍摄和选择编辑基础上，运用画面组接创造节奏变化和艺术气氛，使作品结构高潮迭起，增强吸引力。又如充分利用长画面，关键之处打出简练而幽默的字幕，作为画面内容的补充和说明；后期剪辑中巧用素材剪接突出细节，营造节奏变化和结构高潮，等等，这一切都是移用相对有效的故事片手法。《北方的纳努克》中猎杀海豹的那一段，弗拉哈迪完美地把握了时间关联与空间关联，这一个经典的长镜头吊足了观众的胃口。一开始很长时间人们都不知道他在干什么，渐渐地远方出现黑点，帮忙的人来了，经过一番努力，最终才知道一直在拽的是一头海豹。这个长镜头把悬念和冲突这两个戏剧元素表现得淋漓尽致。而《带摄影机的人》却把蒙太奇玩到了炉火纯青的地步。维尔托夫强调观察和对画面的组织，注重剪辑。他认为蒙太奇手法是阐释和表达观点的最佳手法。影片中有这样一段：摄影机对着花朵，忽而清晰忽而模糊的对焦动作，然后是一个滑稽的并置镜头，一个女人边用毛巾擦脸边眨眼，软百叶窗一张一闭，两者交叉在同一个镜头中，最后是一个摄影机镜头的光圈在一开一闭。这一段其实运用剪辑把摄像机拟人化了，维尔托夫不是为了叙事而是为了表达。

Man with a Movie Camera is a highly experimental film by Russian director Dziga Vertov, which generally shows urban life forms in modern Soviet Union in a cameraman’ s perceptions.

Without any actors or sets, Vertov turned his camera to life reality itself. He captured objects in emotional qualities, inter-cut shots of people without awareness, and flashed quickly over structures. Camera quickly sliding over the surface of Soviet cities, I felt it could freeze any moment into film, expose any details onto the screen.

While watching this film, I felt myself like Vertov’s pair of eyes sensitive to any outside changes without any words. Along with his camera rolling, my eyes kept watching out. Underneath, there indeed was a conversation between Vertov and me. We kept arguing beyond the experiences of this film: the meaning each shot convey, the state of human being, the essence of life etc. And those motion pictures reflecting on Vertoc’s life philosophy gave me a general impression of what an industrial city is like and how its citizens lived there during 1920s.

Furthermore, instead of fully use of words, Vertov communicated his life philosophy with audiences by pure cinematic language. In my opinion, the most interesting thing is his visual ideas of time and space illustration. For instant, ordinary people could barely see if there is any combination between a scene of sleeping woman, a scene of cameraman, and a scene of running train. But Vertov successfully combined three scenes together with some sense of poetry. Such as, in the morning, the train was setting up from the station, but the sleeping woman felt too tired to get up for work. At the same time, the cameraman started to set up his camera. Then, the train kept running on its track, the woman still struggled to wake up. And the cameraman set his camera on the track and waited train’s coming. While the train looked like going crack up cameraman’s body, the woman was suddenly awake from nightmare. Seemingly, she saw the cameraman being cracked by train in her dream.

This is really a good example, which we could much learn about how Vertov used the changing space to illustrate time, and how he brought up the idea of making this surreal montage. I believe, learning how to illustrate time and space well is a most significant thing of making a film, specially on those films of universal themes.


On a more technical note, I felt Vertov much like to shoot objects from unusual angles and made them metaphors for other life forms in this movie. For example, a street in the morning, running machines, and quick walking people without expression, such images quickly sliding over the surface of modern Soviet life, were frequently seen in this film. After hiding himself behind the camera, Vertov traveled over time and space, located anywhere to capture what he believed is reality: the film playing on the screen is our real life. Actors playing inside the film are ourselves.