Vladimir et Rosa

Wind from the East and the other Dziga-Vertov Group films put themselves forward as positive steps. Vladimir and Rosa does the same, but it's dominated by an angry sense of defeat. It centres on a grotesque parody/reconstruction of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, but the actors playing the defendants are also seen in a few domestic scenes (dominated by discussions of feminism), while Godard and Gorin themselves continually interrupt the proceedings to mull over the film's implications and reassess their strategies. The black humour and the new emphasis on the material processes of film-making give the film a distinctive place in the Group's researches, even if its discussion is a rather defeatist rehash of arguments rehearsed more cogently elsewhere.