Images of the day. How Dziga Vertov Breaks Down His Film

Daniel Kasman

V 92
Simfonija Donbassa. Raskadrovka fil’ma. 1. Schema 1930
Symphony of the Donbas. Breakdown of the film
D 1930 F 210 x 336 M Autograph, violet and blue ink on squared double page, connected with paper strips U 2 sheet, 4 sides

Diagram for the film Entuziazm. A work sketch presumably made during the shooting, yet one which evidently was not implemented in this form. A double-page shows the relations between certain elements, including ‘Morse code signs’, ‘Radio-Station’ and ‘Club’ e.g. in one case connected by steps, in another by ellipses and in yet another by arrows. The ‘factory’ was added as a further element. Various sounds and musical instructions are noted including ‘cuckoo’, ‘siren’, ‘music’, ‘pause’, “orchestra’ and ‘metronome’. The other two sides present similar diagrams; above individual boxes are the letters S, D, N or M. An arch-shaped diagram is marked with the letters A, D and T. An interesting document, to date untranslated and undecoded. In the 1970s Rosemarie Ziegler attempted to translate this complex diagram. Her rough translation exists in the archive (cf. Ü D 22.I).

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Text and images generously provided by the Austrian Film Museum from Dziga Vertov: The Vertov Collection at the Austrian Film Museum; Vienna: FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen Vol. 4, 2006; edited by the Austrian Film Museum, Thomas Tode and Barbara Wurm.

The book is available for purchase for European readers here and for American readers here.  More resources on Dziga Vertov from the Austrian Film Museum can be found at their Online Vertov Collection resource, here.

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From April 15 - June 4, 2011 New York's Museum of Modern Art is showing a large retrospective on the work of Dziga Vertov.

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