Essay on realism vs constructivism

Within the lifecycle sequence in the Man with a Movie Camera, Vertov manages to celebrate the modern lifestyle in the USSR in all of the major parts of life. Initially, the camera is shown looking around in a high angle extreme long establishing shot. The camera is personified to be a powerful panopticon and more important or relevant than the hundreds of smaller individuals below. This is used to demonstrate the power of the new technology reflecting constructivism. The Kuleshov effect is used to show the camera looking one way and then the other, first seeing marriage and then divorce. This is a celebration of the development of modern society in which divorce was more possible than ever and ancient traditions had been broken in the new industrial era.These constitute towards the idea that the film can be seen as realist as it attempts to show everything through the camera as appose to what would regularly be expected. 

Vertov also then shows a graphic medium shot of a birth. These images are intercut with shots of the camera as a prop peering over the city and thus are used to make us feel a sense of voyeurism. Highlighted by the brechtian distanciation, the feeling of intrusion on the audience helps to separate us from previous societal norms, such as how births usually take place in private; however, now it has been filmed for everyone to see. This builds towards Vertov’s demonstration of the society as changed by technology and helps to express his modernist ideology but also helps to make the 'documentary' feel more like a realist piece of art and not something created to express an opinion.