10 Incredible Movies That Barely Have Any Dialogue

2. Man With A Movie Camera

Under The Skin
Dziga Vertov

Released in 1929, Man With A Movie Camera was experimental even by silent movie standards, a film with absolutely no story and no actors. Instead, the project, helmed by Soviet-Russian director Dziga Vertov, was intended to explore reality through a cinematic lens.

Man With A Movie Camera is notable for its huge range of cinematic techniques invented by Vertov, the vast majority of which are employed nonchalantly in modern cinema. But Man With A Movie Camera is where they were born. These include slow motion, fast motion, freeze frames, jump cuts (what would YouTube creators do without Vertov?), split screens, tracking shots, stop motion animation...the list truly goes on and on.

Not only was the film a remarkable turning point for cinema, it's also an amazing glance into life in Russia the 1920s, showing everything from transport to construction to the morning commute, as well as more intimate moments like people getting their hair washed and playing sports. It truly is a remarkable preservation of a bygone era.

Contributor
Contributor

Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.