D. W. G RIFFITH AND A MERICAN S ILENT C INEMA Before and After WWI

P RE -W ORLD W AR I Europe: Last Days of “A Nervous Splendor” (Frederic Morton) U. S.: “The Gilded Age” (Mark Twain)—eye on money instead of art. Nickelodeon Era: 10-minute summary of Classics Illustrated versions of literary works.

N ICKELODEON VS. MOVIE T HEATRE Shows lasted between a half hour and an hour Programs included a few one-reel shorts with some sing-along songs illustrated by hand-colored lantern slides interspersed between the movies. No reason to change: By 1910, ten thousand attracting 26 million people a week, with gross receipts for the year totaling $91 million, mostly from immigrants, working class, or unemployed. Environment unappealing for middle and upper class: converted store-front or dance hall with warm temperatures and odors. No movie theatre allowed within 200 feet of a church in 1913!

N ICKELODEON

L EGAL, C REATIVE, AND C OMMERCIAL B UCCANEERING Beginning of nickelodeon era: Biograph, Vitagraph (Edison and Kalem) were leaders and operated out of New York or New Jersey. Ten years later: All but Vitagraph were dead and buried: By 1908, Biograph had joined Edison’s Vitagraph with five other companies to form Patents Company and signed a contract with Eastman for film stock=½ of nickolodeons by Independents who formed Universal and Fox in the future were being strangled so fought back.

T HE V ITAGRAPH C OMPANY

I NDEPENDENTS M OVE TO H OLLYWOOD Independents cut a deal with Lumiere for raw film. They prodded the US government to institute antitrust action against the Patents Company. Because the Patents Company kept destroying their equipment, the Independents moved to California. Edison and Griffith resisted the changes Universal and Fox implemented.

U NIVERSAL C ITY, C ALIFORNIA 1915

D AVID W ARK G RIFFITH ( ) Made Film an art Early life: Modest failure as a write and stage actor Son of a Kentucky general in the Confederacy who never recovered after Civil War Only 6 th grade education

G RIFFITH, CONT.

DW G RIFFITH : T URNING P OINT 1907 Took a job with Edison studios, appearing in Porter’s Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest Asked to direct and trained by Billy Bitzer First film: The Adventures of Dolly— made cleanly and within budget.

A DVENTURES OF D OLLY

D.W. G RIFFITH ’ S S ENSIBILITY Romantic Influenced by Dickens novels Fragile, flowerlike heroines Upstanding heroes Malignant villains No interest in theory behind his efforts but knew how to make movies work.

G RIFFITH WITH L ILLIAN AND D OROTHY G ISH

C ONTRIBUTIONS TO M OVIES The Lonedale Operator (1911): contains nearly 100 shots Took the closeup and began using them as a regular tool Experimented with naturalistic light sources (fireplaces, windows) Used more realistic sets and increased use of locaitons

T HE L ONEDALE O PERATOR

O THER G RIFFITH C ONTRIBUTIONS The Mothering Heart : technique served his passion for the gesture that would reveal a human soul. A Corner in Wheat : 10 minutes of perfection, a canny amalgamation of 2 works by Frank Norris and photographed by Bitzer Parallel editing Frequent closeups Superb sense of locations and landscapes Use of objects to synopsize and define character

T HE M OTHERING H EART

G RIFFITH AND THE A NTI -S TAR S TARS Wanted to avoid paying larger salaries, so attempted to keep names anonymous. Stars emerged despite these tactics: Mary Pickford ( Stella Maris ) Henry B. Walthall ( Birth of a Nation) Robert Harron ( Birth of a Nation) Lillian and Dorothy Gish ( Orphans of the Storm; Birth of a Nation )

T HE B IRTH OF A N ATION Racist adaptation of The Clansmen Stonemans of the North and Camerons of the South (eldest Cameron founds the KKK and protects the South from blacks and white carpetbaggers) An intimate epic? Responded to criticism with Intolerance Other accomplishments included camera cranes, cross-cuts, stream-of-consciousness flow like the mind, spectacle and intimacy.

B IRTH OF A N ATION

D.W. G RIFFITH ’ S D ECLINE Intolerance a Financial Failure Only two critical and popular successes after Birth of a Nation : Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920) Hamstrung by terminal lack of business acumen: Mamaroneck studio failed and went to Paramount After first talkie, Abraham Lincoln (1930), entered an embittered, often alcoholic exile. Died in 1948, a “gray ghost on the edges of a town that could never have been built without him.”