Enthusiasm. Symphony of Donbas
About Enthusiasm. Symphony of Donbas
Dziga Vertov's sound documentary moves through the Donbas in the first Five-Year Plan: churches and the campaign against religion, marches, athletes, mines, and factories. Speech is only a small part of what is heard. Factory, industrial, and machine noise carry the picture.
Cast & crew
More about Enthusiasm. Symphony of Donbas
Dziga Vertov directed and wrote his first sound film, and the first film of Ukrainfilm. Yelizaveta Svilova edited it. Boris Tseytlin photographed it. It was shot on location. Wikidata gives 6 November 1930 and 2 April 1931. English Wikipedia dates the film 1931. The catalog year is 1930. Vertov called it "the lead icebreaker in the column of sound newsreels."
Themes
Background
The Donbas material is from the first Five-Year Plan, including the anti-religious campaign and the industrial drive.
In film history
Vertov treated it as the first of a line of sound newsreels, built on location rather than on a scored drama.
Making
Svilova, Vertov's wife, edited the film, as she did on his other work.
Look
Boris Tseytlin shot it on location in the Donbas, including Lysychansk, Donetsk, and Snizhne.
Technique
Location documentary sound, with machine noise used as the main track rather than as background under dialogue.
Music
The sound is factory, industrial, and machine noise, with human speech only a small part. Vertov treated the joins and the mismatches of sound and image as deliberate.
Notes
- Wikidata names Dmitri Shostakovich as composer. The English Wikipedia article does not. It describes the sound as factory and machine noise, with little speech.
- Vertov said the important thing was the "complex interaction of sound with image," including mismatches he meant to be there.
- Wikidata lists it among 100 best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.
- The Ukrainian title is Entuziiazm: Symfoniia Donbasu.
Scenes
- Church images sit against the anti-religious campaign.
- Factory and machine noise run against the pictures of mines and shops, sometimes out of step with them on purpose.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Enthusiasm (1931) by Dziga Vertov.webm)
Quotes
The lead icebreaker in the column of sound newsreels.
