Herr Dziga Vertov was certainly one of the most important film directors in the history of the U.S.S.R., an innovative director, documentary maker and film theorist who used cinematography as the perfect vehicle for his artistic endeavors, achievements not always fully understood or shared by either his colleagues or the Soviet authorities.
Herr Dziga Vertov's film style "Kino-Glaz" ( Cinema Eye ) reflects perfectly the artistic concerns that the Russian director had in the mid 20's, films wherein the use of editing is fundamental in order to put in images Herr Vertov's film artistic theories about the camera capturing reality. However, this is something of a contradiction because editing is in a certain way the manipulation of reality
"Shestaya Chast Mira" ( One-Sixth Of The World ) (1926) was commissioned by Gostorg, an agency of the Russian Government. Not surprisingly, the film is a paean to the powerful possibilities of the U.S.R.R., a big country composed of an enormous diversity of people, races and nationalities, masters of the sixth part of the world who will put their efforts in the service of their country to make it a world power.
Herr Vertov shows us many industrial sequences, the exporting of Soviet goods and a detailed ethnographical study of the many peoples that make up the Soviet Union. It is masterful propaganda. The use of editing is certainly astonishing and obviously fundamental for this kind of picture wherein different shots and sequences melt together to convey a political message and an artistic study, including fascinating camera angles and film techniques like split screens, animation and the travelling camera. All this creates mesmerizing film collage as fascinating as the extinct U.S.R.R. itself.
And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must ask for the whole part of his inheritance from one of his Teutonic rich heiresses.
Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com
