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How influential were DW Griffith's shorts to the development of the dramatic story in early cinema?
Topic Started: Mar 30 2014, 03:20 PM (443 Views)
Vanda Duarte
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Note: this thread is about Griffith’s pre-1914 work. The Birth of a Nation and later films of his are of little relevance.

D. W. Griffith made hundreds of shorts at Biograph from 1908 to 1913. Amazingly, most of these films survive to date, and many of them make it into lists of cinema’s early masterpieces.

One could go at length discussing Griffith’s editing and narrative techniques; however, that isn’t the focus of this thread. What I want to know is: how influential or innovative was Griffith in regards to early dramatic cinema?

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As Mark Cousins puts it in “The Story of Film”, the decade of the 1900s was when “The Thrill became the Story”. Prior to the 20th century, most films consisted of magic tricks achieved through editing (Melies is famous for this) or brief snapshots of daily life. Edison did a lot of experimental tweaking during these early days. But after 1900, the plot of movies became more elaborate, as evidenced by Porter films such as The Great Train Robbery and Life of an American Fireman. Other filmmakers quickly discovered slapstick, which became the most popular comedy subgenre in the silent era.

There is surprisingly few details about film history between Melies’ A Trip to the Moon and about 1913 or 1914. Some of the most well-known directors of the 10s (Feuillade, Victor Sjörström, Max Linder) made their first films during that period, and Edison’s company kept making short films as well.

Griffith made his first film, The Adventures of Dollie, in 1908. A remarkable thing about Griffith is that he directed virtually no comedy movies (The Curtain Pole is the only one that comes to mind). Since he had a lot of creative freedom at Biograph, I would say that this was due more to his personality than to other external factors. In 1909 he made A Corner In Wheat, which contrasted the plight of the poor with the commodities of the rich; the structure of this film has been compared to the socialist films made by the Russians years later.

Many of Griffith’s shorts have trite storylines which serve as nothing more than to thrill or entertain (such as The Girl and Her Trust, which was later remade as The Lonedale Operator). However, a remarkable portion of his early movies have more carefully constructed plots that are often morally ambiguous, in addition to some psychologically complex characters. Take The Country Doctor (which he also wrote) as an example: a doctor takes care of his sick daughter, but he is constantly asked by a woman to help her sick child; eventually, he decides to go help her. The child regains health, but the doctor’s daughter dies during his absence. The doctor returns only to find his deceased daughter. The film ends with a shot that contrasts the very first shot.

Storywise, some of his most interesting works are The Unchanging Sea, The Painted Lady, The Mothering Heart, The Golden Louis, The Last Drop of Water and His Trust. All of these show not only technical skill, but also narrative sensibility.

But just how good were his short films compared to the rest of cinema of that time period? And were they influential or remarkable in regards to their storylines? Is Griffith’s relevance to the medium largely overstated? Maybe there were other great dramatic filmmakers who were better or just as good as Griffith whose films are now lost.

Griffith is considered by many as the man responsible for elevating cinema to the status of an art form. Is this only because of his editing techniques? Would you agree with that statement?

I’d like to hear your thoughts.
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AaronG
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In New York Hat you can see the momentous impact that Griffith and Mary Pickford had on film acting. Other filmmakers used close ups, but in the Griffiths films from then onward, and in particular through Lillian Gish, you can see a style of acting for the camera emerging where actors don't project emotions a la theatre but ask the audience to try to figure out their internal emotional states from clues on the face and the body. It's one of the great shifts in film.
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KaiWhite
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There's a very good biography about Griffith by Richard Schickel, and some of the answer to your question is covered in that. Other parts of the answer to your question come from other films of that era. I have to run off to do something, but the short answer is, Griffith is correctly credited with defining movie structure as we now know it. He was an acknowledged influence on his contemporaries, even those from and working in other countries. I'm not going to try and pass myself off as an expert on the subject at all, but I don't remember reading much about his editing, although I'm happy to go poke through my books again at a later date. I'll follow up more with you on this later.
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Vanda Duarte
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Well put, Aaron. I've been thinking a lot about his films and I realized that while he didn't invent many cinematic techniques that appeared throughout his films (such as the close-up you mentioned), he knew how to use them for other reasons than just detailing a part of the story or showing he could do some tricks with his camera. He used these techniques to bring emotional bits and pieces to the viewer. The dreamlike sequence in The Avenging Conscience where the main character thinks about Blanche Sweet's character who is staring at a pitch-black sky through a window is an example of this. It doesn't add really anything to the story progression itself, but it shows the mental state of the character and his repentance of the crime he has committed.

KaiWhite, thanks for the book rec. I read somewhere that Abel Gance held Griffith in high regard, and Griffith in turn liked Gance's work. Griffith saw J'Accuse and gave it American distribution through United Artists. I'll be waiting for your later reply.
Edited by Vanda Duarte, Mar 31 2014, 01:52 AM.
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Edges and Ridges
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Recently I read Georges Sadoul's “History of the Cinema", which made me aware of how many aspects and details have been pushed into a corner and overlooked. However that didn't change my conviction that Griffith is the most worldwidely influential director of this period. Without him, the art of silent cinema could not have lifted off its theatrical concept as soon as it actually did. This means - as you and KaiWhite have already discussed - Griffith invented a dynamic narrative system with rhythmed editing. In this regard, I always adore "Judith of Bethulia" as well, made in the same year as "The Avenging Conscience".

And I totally agree on Aaron's point about Lillian Gish. Béla Balázs once wrote on Asta Nielsen and her "eyes" ("Asta Nielsen: How She Loves and How She Grows" in Bela Balazs: Early Film Theory). Very helpful to further understanding.
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AaronG
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Great comments. Gorin has said that all Robert De Niro ever wanted to be was Lilian Gish in drag by which he mean she (and Mary Pickford) and DW Griffith created screen acting.
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