Soviet Movies: Dziga Vertov - Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa AKA Энтузиазм: Симфония Донбасса (1931)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Dziga Vertov - Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa AKA Энтузиазм: Симфония Донбасса (1931)

Vertov and his Kino group produced this lyrical documentary on the lives of Coal miners in the Donbas who are struggling to meet their production quotas under the five year plan. Enthusiasm is most noteworthy for it's creative use of the new sound medium. Vertov liberated the recording equipment from the studio and shot sound on location. He also used common everyday sounds and wove them into what can only be described as a symphony. In fact, after seeing the film Charlie Chaplin wrote: "Never had I known that these mechanical sounds could be arranged to sound so beautiful. I regard it as one of the most exhilarating symphonies I have heard. Mr. Dziga Vertov is a musician.”

“Enthusiasm for both his subject and his style permeates Vertov's first sound film, contrasting the old order and the new through didactic, dynamic montage. As in The Man With The Movie Camera, one's attention is drawn to the making of the film itself as a contribution to the modernization program, epitomizing Lenin's statement, 'Of all the arts, for us cinema is the most important'”
—Holt’s Foreign Film Guide