7. Man With A Movie Camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fd_T4l2qaQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player Filmed just a few years after the first major documentary Nanook of the North was released, Dziga Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera took the medium of documentary to strange new heights. Without any dialogue or plot line, this Russian film from 1929 is simply, yet elegantly, a series of brief glimpses of Russian life. Upon its initial release, Man With A Movie Camera was a silent film accompanied by an in-house orchestra. As the years rolled by and with the advent of DVDs, soundtracks were added to the film as most believed that was more convenient than housing a twenty piece symphony in your basement. One of the first of these versions was performed by the Alloy Orchestra. This soundtrack, which was supposedly written based on notes by Mr. Vertov himself, incorporates sound effects, including crying children and sirens alarming in the background. The Alloy Orchestra version of the soundtrack is quickly paced and whimsical, which perfectly aligns with Vertov's hyperkinetic camera resulting in a package that resembles an anime-induced seizure.