Page 49 - summer 22

revolutionary: “I am the kine-eye. I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the

world as only I can see it. I free myself from human immobility. I am in constant
motion. I draw near, then away, from objects. I crawl under, I climb onto them. I
move apace with the muzzle of a galloping horse. I plunge full speed into a crowd.”
Here was the Modernist vision of cinema, briefly realised in the Soviet avant-garde
era. However, it was snuffed out. “But the camera experienced a misfortune. It was
invented at a time when there was no single country in which capital was not in
power. The bourgeoisie’s hellish idea consisted of using the new toy to entertain the
masses or rather to divert the workers’ attention from their aim: the struggle against

their masters.” Cinema as the upholder of capitalist hegemony; Theodore Adorno
could hardly have put it better.

Vertov was spirited in his condemnations: “we declare the old films based on the
romance, theatrical films and the like, to be leprous. Keep away from them! Keep your
eyes off them! They’re mortally dangerous! Contagious! ” He warned audiences to
“flee the sweet embraces of the romance, the poison of the psychological novel, the

clutches of the theatre of adultery”. He feared that this intoxicating vision of “the
sensory exploration of the world though the kino-eye” will be lost, ruined by history:
“But the camera experienced a misfortune. It was invented at a time when there was
no single country in which capital was not in power. The bourgeoisie’s hellish idea
consisted of using the new toy to entertain the masses or rather to divert the
workers’ attention from their aim: the struggle against their masters.”

To Vertov, “The Essence of the Kino-eye” was “to aid each oppressed individual and

the proletariat as a whole understand the phenomenon of life around them.” “Cinema
truth” was documentaries of real people on the streets, the portrayal of the brave
new world of speed and machines and “epics of electric power plants.” He
condemned the “profiteering cinema” the film-star system, “the immortal kings and
queens of the screen”.

Dzige Vertov, writing and working in 1920’s Russian cinema, anticipates to a
remarkable degree the later ideas of Gramsci and Adorno about hegemony and the
culture industries. But the liberationist, avant-garde cinema he championed was
destroyed twice over in the 1930’s: politically, by Stalin, culturally by Hollywood.

Hollywood conquers: the whole equation
On average, Hollywood has derived about 50% of its income from the sale of its
movies to foreign countries. But, also on average, foreign films released in the United
States made up 1% of the total. This simple statistic demonstrates the cultural power

of Hollywood. Its ethos dominates world cinema, even though from an early point in