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David Wark Griffith

David Wark Griffith

DW Griffith in 1923

Birth	22 January 1875 Crestwood , United States
Nationality	U.S.
Deaths	23 July 1948 (73 years) Hollywood , United States
Occupation (s)	Director
Notable Films	Birth of a Nation , Intolerance , The Broken Blossoms , Through the storm , Orphans of the Storm

David Wark Griffith was a director American born on 22 January 1875 at the Manoir de La Grange Crestwood ( Kentucky ), died on 23 July 1948 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Hollywood ( California ).

A prolific filmmaker, he has turned around 400 short films in 5 years, from 1908 to 1913 and directed the first film shot in Hollywood , In Old California. It has also greatly changed the film editing. He is founder with Charlie Chaplin , Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford of United Artists , the first independent film studio in 1919.

Summary

1 Biography
2 The contribution of the mounting Griffith
3 Trivia
4 Selected Filmography
- 4.1 Films dumb
- Talking Movies 4.2
5 Notes and references
6 External links

/ / Biography

Getting Started

Griffith was born in La Grange , Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith and Mary Perkins Oglesby. His father was a colonel in the Confederate States Army , a hero of the Civil War and a legislator of Kentucky. He was educated by her older sister in a school in one piece. He was 7 years old at the death of his father, who earned serious financial trouble to the family, and 14 years old when abandoned farms for Louisville. Her mother opened a pension, which quickly fell into bankruptcy. He left school to support the family, first in a bazaar, and a bookstore.

Griffith began his career writing for theater. But without much success, one of his pieces being shown on stage .

Birth of a Nation, a position described as "xenophobic"

In 1915, realizing that the film is often seen as the first true feature of the history of American cinema (the Italians produce proto-peplums that last three, four or five hours), Griffith (after many difficulties to accept the project) decided to give his vision of a piece of the history of African Americans :

The film focuses on the Civil War , and takes advantage of playing the role of blacks by white actors Grimes (but do play roles in non-Western Westerners was a common practice that ended only decades later). The film is a glorification of the Ku Klux Klan who is here portrayed as a group of knights came to defend the white savage blacks from the north of the southern free blacks in slavery, but very happy with their condition. Griffith had long dreamed of an American historical epic. It has started a meticulous reconstruction of a rarely seen places, but mostly costumes, hairstyles, beards and mustaches other.

A scene from Birth of a Nation

This movie huge success for the time had the effect of the revival Ku Klux Klan in 1915. Yet, paradoxically, Griffith does not consider himself a racist, and did not understand that his film be taxed as such. He shared the vision of many Americans at the time on the slavery era (the good white master and slave good living in harmony in a cordial good child, a paternalistic view that died decades later.) But Griffith built the script for his film from the work of a racist reverend, and blacks are routinely camped Figures deceitful and evil.

Intolerance, major work and original

Deeply shocked by the racist label that sticks to his film, he considers himself a victim of injustice and achieves Intolerance (1916). This film is a masterpiece of film history because of the enormous resources devoted to it, on his audacious storylines (four stories set in different eras illustrate the central theme of intolerance) and a montage of increasingly rapid interweaving these various plots to its conclusion.

While the studios engage in the implementation of feature films , these early works of Griffith are already references outstanding in terms of formal originality and dramatic tension. "When we look closely at his work, it seems to be present at the genesis of a song or the first conscious use of the lever or wheel, to witness the appearance of organization and the beginnings of language and the birth of an art " .

Later life difficult

Other major works will follow , as The Broken Blossoms (1919), Through the Storm (1920) or the Street of Dreams (1921). But DW Griffith knew then the end of a difficult career, marked by financial failures, loss of artistic independence and alcohol problems. Suffering from a lack of recognition on the part of producers and a lack of confidence and creativity , his career declined rapidly in the second part of the 20s and ended in 1931.

Griffith's contribution to the assembly

According to Jean Mitry , "If the cinema has to Louis Lumiere, essentially, its existence as a means of analysis and reproduction of movement (and, therefore, as a spectacle and entertainment industry), that Griffith basically it owes its existence as art, as a means of expression and meaning. Others subsequently went much further. " . Although Jean Mitry recognizes the contributions of predecessors Griffith ( Georges Melies , Edwin S. Porter , Louis Feuillade and Leonce Perret ) he asserts that "he did not invent everything, it took a lot of things his predecessors, he at least has the great merit of giving a meaning, a justification for the methods he used " .

One of the earliest innovations of Griffith is to have designed the mount as a succession of shots of the same action contemplated under different angles and perspectives to create an emotion. So instead of a complete action film, leaving the camera in one place, Griffith decided to approach the camera or away. Another great innovation from Griffith is considered to have the length of plans in a manner totally independent of the length of the action to create suspense. It also improves montage. The pinnacle of this art is found in intolerance where it leads from the front four stories, which is by Jean Mitry a landmark film.

Actress Lillian Gish (with which he shot five feature films) presents Griffith as "the father of cinema": "He created himself, by hand. Do you show films in 1900 and look what they were, then watch his, and you begin to understand what he did with the camera. And with the actors. Others have followed, but it is the one that gave the films their form and grammar. '

Trivia

Griffith, for new players and form a band, decided to do a casting, the Gish sisters have been involved, as well as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks , and Raoul Walsh , who made a convincing demonstration of the lasso, which Griffith has won.