Booklet - Österreichisches Filmmuseum

53 VertovSestaja_booklet:ef 14.12.2009 11:42 Uhr Seite 10
Šestaja čast’ mira Odinnadcatyj
the other, he was a central and “problematic” figure in the polemical debate (still raging
today) about the basic principles of documentary film. With Odinnadcatyj, the “celebration
film” realised by the VUFKU in Kiev in the 11 th year following the October revolution, Vertov
took the game even further – aiming at nothing less than the “summary film” of a “new
visuality”. Although the establishing shots in both films show a plane circling over the earth
– an index of the dizzying heights from which the “I-Can-See” of the camera establishes
its observation of life –, Odinnadcatyj unfolds in a quite different direction, at least on the
formal level. Here, the rhythmic montage of (mostly) static compositions is replaced by an
almost lyrical, dynamic flow of moving shots. In several cases, these images attain iconic
status (as, for example, the bust of Lenin projected upon the gushing water), but often
they refer simply to the pure visuality of movement (the number of intertitles is drastically
reduced here). Spectacular photography and experimental super-impositions constitute a
“layered space”. Thus, in a manner similar to Šestaja čast’ mira, the stylistic essence of the
film reaches its point: In the earlier film, it had been the topoi of wiring and networking
on all levels. In Odinnadcatyj, the anthem for the industrialisation of the Ukrainian SSR as
exemplified by the hydroelectric stations on the Dnepr and Volchov rivers, suggests that
superimposition, overlap and transmission are the basic elements in the circular flow of
energy. From a single idea – the “rise of electric force” – two potential readings develop:
an in-depth economic archaeology of human history or a radical formalist study of “selfcontained
signifying units”. Form and content are inseparable. Naturally, Odinnadcatyj
was suspected of formalism. For this very reason, however, the film still inspires creativity
in film analysis today.
Three years before the absolute “Meta-Cinema” of Čelovek s kinoapparatom (Man with
a Movie Camera), the self-reflexive film-within-a-film scenes in Šestaja čast’ mira created
a stir: Audience members could catch a glimpse of their very selves on-screen and, as a
result, became an active component of the film, surpassing all previous conceptions of
a participatory cinema. The issue of whether contemporary reception of the film was
truly nationwide, as Vertov claimed, remains a subject for further research. But apparently
10,000 people saw Odinnadcatyj during its first three days of release. In contrast, we are
today faced with one of film history’s unique discrepancies – between the “Eureka” effect
produced by a director’s name and the actual inaccessibility of his oeuvre. Those who
say “Vertov” mostly mean Čelovek s kinoapparatom; perhaps also Kinoglaz or Tri pesni o
Lenine. This double-disc DVD can, therefore, be seen as something of a sensation simply
for bringing together two of his major works, produced back-to-back at the creative
pinnacle of the 1920s avant-garde movement – Vertov’s most rigorously experimental
phase. In addition, however, it offers two curatorial “specials”: the fact that composer
Michael Nyman accepted, over a cup of tea by his London fireside, the challenge of giving
a musical perspective to these rhythmic extremes of cinema; and the extensive scholarly
“bonus” materials laid out here by the Austrian Film Museum, all resulting from the
Digital Formalism research project in Vienna. Odinnadcatyj – perhaps the least known
of Vertov’s features and a textbook example of the difficulties of historical transmission –
receives extensive treatment. The discovery of its “lost finale” – a stroke of luck in film
analysis and archival research – is a historical moment. As Vertov himself would have said:
“All citizens from 10 to 100 years old must see this work.”