Universal Language

A Man with a Movie Camera was really captivating for me, but in that, I can't separate the visual component from the music, added later. Both have a lot of energy and give a lot to the film, but it would be a different experience without the music. Would the experience have been less interesting?

Vertov mentioned in his essay that he thought of music as helping us to "hear" like how a Kino-eye helps us to "see". I got the sense that as much as the movie was trying to show life as art, as seen through the camera, there was also this glorification of the cameraman. A lot of the time he is seen as larger than life, although admittedly the first image is of a larger than life camera. Then the eye is laid on top of the camera lense. It's like Vertov is saying "I'm pointing out the eye of God to you, so you'll know better next time."

There's a lovely "This Could Be Anywhere" component of the film, being silent with just music as its form of expression. But what does that say? This is the human life, laid bare before this man's camera? It's a nice feeling that A Man with a Movie Camera is a universal language, using film as a means of communication and expression, but it was a personal film. The language is still universal, even in a subjective view point.