"The Man With a Movie Camera" x "The Bicycle Thief"

The Man With a Movie Camera (1929):

The Bicycle Thief  (1948):

Given that there is no clear story to Dziga Vertov's The Man With a Movie Camera, it can be stated that Pudovkin's concept of constructive editing is not applied to the film. This concept argues that each and every one of a film's individual shots should, through its placement relative to other essential details, hold some new significance to the overall story. Therefore, no story means no Pudovkin constructive editing. In contrast, the decidedly less experimental The Bicycle Thief does indeed follow a story. An instance of the manifestation of constructive editing occurs in the above clip from 0:21 to 2:37; each shot and the cuts bridging them are juxtaposed in a sequence so as to reveal the train of thought carrying Antonio to his decision to send Bruno home on the streetcar and to steal the seemingly-abandoned bicycle.

An example (albeit, granted, a sort of reverse pseudo-example) of the Kuleshov effect in The Man With a Movie Camera is from 3:13 to 3:29. The two paintings, one of an old man and the other of a man and a woman, are cut to between shots of a woman in bed. These in a sense exemplify how Vertov wished for the audience to react to the woman; the former expresses curiosity, while the latter displays concern and even disdain. Similarly, The Bicycle Thief utilizes the Kuleshov effect when, at 4:58, the owner of the bicycle that Antonio attempted to steal, glances to his side and notices Antonio's son Bruno. This is reflected in the cut to Bruno, and the subsequent cut back to the owner who thus elects not to turn Antonio in to the police.

Eisensteinian montage occurs in both of these films. The Man With a Movie Camera's theater sequence, from 0:40 to 2:57, features incomplete shots more significant to the sequence as a whole than to themselves; such include short shots of the stage, the seats, the entering audience, the seats, the operator of the projector, the seated audience, the orchestra conductor, the trumpeter, the violinist, the bassist, the trombone player, a percussionist, a saxophonist... ahem. And et cetera. Eisensteinian montage is used very frequently in The Bicycle Thief  as Antonio ponders stealing the lone bicycle. As he paces back and forth, the film cuts similarly between perspectives.

It would be rather difficult to argue that The Man With a Movie Camera utilizes realist editing techniques; it contains frequent (but not constant!) cuts, meaning that there is a degree of editing, meaning that it is not highly realist in terms of editing style, meaning that it does not employ realist editing techniques. One use of realist editing in The Bicycle Thief  is when Antonio has stolen the bicycle and is being pursued following the increasing hue and cry (2:39 to 4:41). There is very little editing done, and it is clear that the only cuts come with insertion of shorter takes inside of long takes.