D.W. Griffith

Birth and Death

January 22, 1875 La Grange, Kentucky

July 23, 1948 Hollywood, California (73 yrs old)

Occupations

actor, film director, film producer

Directors that influenced his work

Giovanni Pastrone

John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Cecil B. DeMille, Lev Kuleshov, Jean Renoir, King Vidor, Sergei Eisenstein, Carl Theodor Dreyer

Full Shot

shot where the subject fills the frame from head to toe.

Medium Shot

shot where the subject fits the frame from the thigh to the head.

Close Shot

shot where the subject fills the frame from the chest to the head.

Close-Up

shot where the subject’s head, hand, leg, etc., fills the frame.

Extreme close-up

shot where the subject’s eye, finger, toe, etc., fills the frame.

Long Shot

shot where the subject fills half of the frame.

Extreme long shot

shot where the subject fills one tenth of the frame.

Depth of field or perspective shot

shot that shows a combination of objects and/or characters far and close to the camera.

Contrast Shot

shot where the subject looks dark in front of a lighted background.

High angle shot

shot where the camera is placed above the object or character.

low angle shot

shot where the camera is placed below the object or character.

Pan/panoramic shot

shows a wide view of the scene.

Iris shot

shot where the central object is focused and the outer parts are darkened.

Traveling shot

camera that is placed on a train, plane, car in movement.

track shot

a camera that moves on rails or tracks.

cross cutting

An editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations.

David Belasco

one of Griffith’s greatest influences —> translated into the melodrama, suspense, pathos, and purity onscreen

The Adventures of Dollie

his first film as a director

the use of props

how was he able to turn 2d scenes into 3d ones? (using angles and proximity)

he was described as being a

Victorian patriarchal sentimentalist (very conservative and traditional)

Paradox of film narrative

films looked so real and natural, and yet they were fictional and patterned.

grammar and rhetoric of film

combination of film shots to produce, clarity, power, and meaning

Griffith’s major film innovations

• demanded underacting (more true to life)

• very selective in the choice and quality of his actors

• developed a lexicon of gestures and movements — clear and evocative yet subtle enough to seem real and unaffected

• he demanded rehearsals

contents and messages in Griffith’s films

One of his major objectives was to project truth in his films —> wanted to illuminate his vision of good and evil

2 poles of Griffith’s moral world are:

Gentleness - women, peace, and home

Violence - men and war

Positive values in Griffith’s films

• social order

• peace

• intellectual freedom

• loyalty

• home and family

• womanhood/motherhood

• marital fidelity

Negative values in Griffith’s films

• social change

• war

• censorship

• treachery

• the high life

• sexual licence

• broken homes

The Birth of a Nation

• he did not use a script —> created the details on the spot as they filmed

• took 6 weeks to rehearse and 9 to shoot

• thousands of extras were used

• cost: 110k —> most expensive film of its time

• used countless of huge and detailed indoor sets

• first showing: March 3 1915

• 13 reels long (over 3 hours)

• document of american social history and film history

• would be unacceptable for today’s liberals because of racist portrayals of the Negro and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan

• caused protests and riots —> some cities chose not to present it

• Griffith believed in sending the Negroes back to Africa

• Presents mulattoes as the source of evil because of the mixing of races and blood

Elements that make A Birth of a Nation a Masterpiece

• the film is strikingly complex and tightly whole

• contains brilliant parts tied together by the driving of the film’s narrative

• the hugeness of its conception, acting, sets, and cinematic devices were unprecedented

Intolerance

• one of the greatest masterpieces of the Silent Era

• 4 different centuries:

1. A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption

2. A Judean story —> Christ’s mission and death

3. a French story —> St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572

4. a Babylonian story —> the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC

Elements of Intolerable

• longer, greater, and more narratively complex than Birth of a Nation

• It cost $493,800 to make (4x more expensive)

• 14 reels long

• told 4 different stories simultaneously covering 2500 years of history

• each story was paralleled to each other

• cinema’s first great Modernist experiment in the field of editing and montage —> later perfected by the Soviets

• audience did NOT like the film (too complex)

Griffith’s messages in Intolerance

• women = historical continuity

what does Griffith despise

• People who meddle and destroy

• People who take advantage of the poor

• schemers and hypocrites

• lovers of lust and power

Broken Blossoms/The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)

• Griffith’s most explicit and poetic hymn to gentleness

• Considered one of the most beautifully lit films in screen history

Griffith’s downfall

• He ran out of ideas —> both technically and intellectually —> Lost his innovative talent

• Wasn’t able to adapt to changes in the film industry

• Became outdated —> was too old-fashioned