3. Man With A Movie Camera (1929)
An experimental documentary, The Man With the Movie Camera has no actors and no story. It is instead, a series of images told in Avant-Garde style and its lack of narrative paved the way for modern directors like David Lynch and Terrence Malick as well as experimental films such as Koyaanisqatsi. Man with a Movie Camera follows an avid cameraman over the course of one day in an urban Russian city. Filmed over a period of three years, Man with a Movie Camera was immensely controversial upon its release for multiple reasons. First, it was edited at roughly four times the speed of a normal film at the time was edited, disorientating many of its viewers. Secondly, it had no intertitles, no characters, no story, and no direction, and was instead an almost pure exercise in technique and style. Lastly, director Dziga Vertov belonged to a group of filmmakers known as Kinoks, who wanted to do away with all non-documentary types of films which did not particularly endear them to other members of the film world. Man with a Movie Camera is still studied for its craft with innovations that Vertov invented or developed including slow motion, freeze frames, jump cute, split screen, tracking shots, and many others. To this day, The Man with a Movie Camera is well regarded and often listed among the greatest experimental films of all time.