Author: Tom Gunning
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252063664
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith directed nearly 200 films during 1908 and 1909, his first years with the Biograph Company. While those one-reel films are a testament to Griffith's inspired genius as a director, they also reflect a fundamental shift in film style from "cheap amusements" to movie storytelling complete with characters and narrative impetus. In this comprehensive historical investigation, drawing on films preserved by the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art, Tom Gunning reveals that the remarkable cinematic changes between 1900 and 1915 were a response to the radical reorganization within the film industry and the evolving role of film in American society. The Motion Picture Patents Company, the newly formed Film Trust, had major economic aspirations. The newly emerging industry's quest for a middle-class audience triggered Griffith's early experiments in film editing and imagery. His unique solutions permanently shaped American narrative film.
D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film
Author: Tom Gunning
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252063664
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith directed nearly 200 films during 1908 and 1909, his first years with the Biograph Company. While those one-reel films are a testament to Griffith's inspired genius as a director, they also reflect a fundamental shift in film style from "cheap amusements" to movie storytelling complete with characters and narrative impetus. In this comprehensive historical investigation, drawing on films preserved by the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art, Tom Gunning reveals that the remarkable cinematic changes between 1900 and 1915 were a response to the radical reorganization within the film industry and the evolving role of film in American society. The Motion Picture Patents Company, the newly formed Film Trust, had major economic aspirations. The newly emerging industry's quest for a middle-class audience triggered Griffith's early experiments in film editing and imagery. His unique solutions permanently shaped American narrative film.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252063664
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith directed nearly 200 films during 1908 and 1909, his first years with the Biograph Company. While those one-reel films are a testament to Griffith's inspired genius as a director, they also reflect a fundamental shift in film style from "cheap amusements" to movie storytelling complete with characters and narrative impetus. In this comprehensive historical investigation, drawing on films preserved by the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art, Tom Gunning reveals that the remarkable cinematic changes between 1900 and 1915 were a response to the radical reorganization within the film industry and the evolving role of film in American society. The Motion Picture Patents Company, the newly formed Film Trust, had major economic aspirations. The newly emerging industry's quest for a middle-class audience triggered Griffith's early experiments in film editing and imagery. His unique solutions permanently shaped American narrative film.
D.W. Griffith: Master of Cinema
Author: Ira H. Gallen
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460260996
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Exhaustively researched and accessibly written, D.W. Griffith: Master of Cinema is a remarkably comprehensive biography of the legendary director and his days creating his craft at the American Biograph Company between 1908 through 1913. Meticulously detailed, utilizing a wealth of archival documents and photographs, the book effectively details Griffith’s place as a film pioneer. Even a casual film fan can see the lines being drawn from the techniques Griffith developed to modern cinematic experience. Ira Gallen’s exploration of Griffith’s family and his early life sets the stage for his career, and give great context for who he would become. His intricate details about early stage and film paint such a vivid and evocative picture of the time that you will be truly drawn into another world while reading it.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460260996
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Exhaustively researched and accessibly written, D.W. Griffith: Master of Cinema is a remarkably comprehensive biography of the legendary director and his days creating his craft at the American Biograph Company between 1908 through 1913. Meticulously detailed, utilizing a wealth of archival documents and photographs, the book effectively details Griffith’s place as a film pioneer. Even a casual film fan can see the lines being drawn from the techniques Griffith developed to modern cinematic experience. Ira Gallen’s exploration of Griffith’s family and his early life sets the stage for his career, and give great context for who he would become. His intricate details about early stage and film paint such a vivid and evocative picture of the time that you will be truly drawn into another world while reading it.
A Companion to D. W. Griffith
Author: Charles Keil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118341252
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 624
Book Description
The most comprehensive volume on one of the most controversial directors in American film history A Companion to D.W. Griffith offers an exhaustive look at the first acknowledged auteur of the cinema and provides an authoritative account of the director’s life, work, and lasting filmic legacy. The text explores how Griffith’s style and status advanced along with cinema’s own development during the years when narrative became the dominant mode, when the short gave way to the feature, and when film became the pre-eminent form of mass entertainment. Griffith was at the centre of each of these changes: though a contested figure, he remains vital to any understanding of how cinema moved from nickelodeon fixture to a national pastime, playing a significant role in the cultural ethos of America. With the renewed interest in Griffith’s contributions to the film industry, A Companion to D.W. Griffith offers a scholarly look at a career that spanned more than 25 years. The editor, a leading scholar on D.W. Griffith, and the expert contributors collectively offer a unique account of one of the monumental figures in film studies. Presents the most authoritative, complete account of the director’s life, work, and lasting legacy Builds on the recent resurgence in the director’s scholarly and popular reputation Edited by a leading authority on D.W. Griffith, who has published extensively on this controversial director Offers the most up-to-date, singularly comprehensive volume on one of the monumental figures in film studies
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118341252
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 624
Book Description
The most comprehensive volume on one of the most controversial directors in American film history A Companion to D.W. Griffith offers an exhaustive look at the first acknowledged auteur of the cinema and provides an authoritative account of the director’s life, work, and lasting filmic legacy. The text explores how Griffith’s style and status advanced along with cinema’s own development during the years when narrative became the dominant mode, when the short gave way to the feature, and when film became the pre-eminent form of mass entertainment. Griffith was at the centre of each of these changes: though a contested figure, he remains vital to any understanding of how cinema moved from nickelodeon fixture to a national pastime, playing a significant role in the cultural ethos of America. With the renewed interest in Griffith’s contributions to the film industry, A Companion to D.W. Griffith offers a scholarly look at a career that spanned more than 25 years. The editor, a leading scholar on D.W. Griffith, and the expert contributors collectively offer a unique account of one of the monumental figures in film studies. Presents the most authoritative, complete account of the director’s life, work, and lasting legacy Builds on the recent resurgence in the director’s scholarly and popular reputation Edited by a leading authority on D.W. Griffith, who has published extensively on this controversial director Offers the most up-to-date, singularly comprehensive volume on one of the monumental figures in film studies
Adventures with D. W. Griffith
Author: Karl Brown
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374100933
Category : Cadreurs - Correspondance
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374100933
Category : Cadreurs - Correspondance
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
D. W. Griffith
Author: Anthony Slide
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617032980
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Interviews with one of the great early film directors, maestro of The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Hearts of the World
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617032980
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Interviews with one of the great early film directors, maestro of The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Hearts of the World
D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation
Author: Melvyn Stokes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199887519
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 741
Book Description
In this deeply researched and vividly written volume, Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins, production, reception and continuing history of this ground-breaking, aesthetically brilliant, and yet highly controversial movie. By going back to the original archives, particularly the NAACP and D. W. Griffith Papers, Stokes explodes many of the myths surrounding The Birth of a Nation (1915). Yet the story that remains is fascinating: the longest American film of its time, Griffith's film incorporated many new features, including the first full musical score compiled for an American film. It was distributed and advertised by pioneering methods that would quickly become standard. Through the high prices charged for admission and the fact that it was shown, at first, only in "live" theaters with orchestral accompaniment, Birth played a major role in reconfiguring the American movie audience by attracting more middle-class patrons. But if the film was a milestone in the history of cinema, it was also undeniably racist. Stokes shows that the darker side of this classic movie has its origins in the racist ideas of Thomas Dixon, Jr. and Griffith's own Kentuckian background and earlier film career. The book reveals how, as the years went by, the campaign against the film became increasingly successful. In the 1920s, for example, the NAACP exploited the fact that the new Ku Klux Klan, which used Griffith's film as a recruiting and retention tool, was not just anti-black, but also anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish, as a way to mobilize new allies in opposition to the film. This crisply written book sheds light on both the film's racism and the aesthetic brilliance of Griffith's filmmaking. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the cinema.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199887519
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 741
Book Description
In this deeply researched and vividly written volume, Melvyn Stokes illuminates the origins, production, reception and continuing history of this ground-breaking, aesthetically brilliant, and yet highly controversial movie. By going back to the original archives, particularly the NAACP and D. W. Griffith Papers, Stokes explodes many of the myths surrounding The Birth of a Nation (1915). Yet the story that remains is fascinating: the longest American film of its time, Griffith's film incorporated many new features, including the first full musical score compiled for an American film. It was distributed and advertised by pioneering methods that would quickly become standard. Through the high prices charged for admission and the fact that it was shown, at first, only in "live" theaters with orchestral accompaniment, Birth played a major role in reconfiguring the American movie audience by attracting more middle-class patrons. But if the film was a milestone in the history of cinema, it was also undeniably racist. Stokes shows that the darker side of this classic movie has its origins in the racist ideas of Thomas Dixon, Jr. and Griffith's own Kentuckian background and earlier film career. The book reveals how, as the years went by, the campaign against the film became increasingly successful. In the 1920s, for example, the NAACP exploited the fact that the new Ku Klux Klan, which used Griffith's film as a recruiting and retention tool, was not just anti-black, but also anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish, as a way to mobilize new allies in opposition to the film. This crisply written book sheds light on both the film's racism and the aesthetic brilliance of Griffith's filmmaking. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the cinema.
D. W. Griffith
Author: Iris Barry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780870706837
Category : American cinema
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Essay by Iris Barry.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780870706837
Category : American cinema
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Essay by Iris Barry.
The Films of D. W. Griffith
Author: Scott Simmon
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521388207
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
An introduction to the work of the first widely acknowledged master filmmaker.
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521388207
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
An introduction to the work of the first widely acknowledged master filmmaker.
Stagestruck Filmmaker
Author: David Mayer
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1587298406
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
An actor, a vaudevillian, and a dramatist before he became a filmmaker, D. W. Griffith used the resources of theatre to great purpose and to great ends. In pioneering the quintessentially modern medium of film from the 1890s to the 1930s, he drew from older, more broadly appealing stage forms of melodrama, comedy, vaudeville, and variety. In Stagestruck Filmmaker, David Mayer brings Griffith’s process vividly to life, offering detailed and valuable insights into the racial, ethnic, class, and gender issues of these transitional decades. Combining the raw materials of theatre, circus, minstrelsy, and dance with the newer visual codes of motion pictures, Griffith became the first acknowledged artist of American film. Birth of a Nation in particular demonstrates the degree to which he was influenced by the racist justifications and distorting interpretations of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Moving through the major phases of Griffith’s career in chapters organized around key films or groups of films, Mayer provides a mesmerizing account of the American stage and cinema in the final years of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. Griffith’s relationship to the theatre was intricate, complex, and enduring. Long recognized as the dominant creative figure of American motion pictures, throughout twenty-six years of making more than five hundred films he pillaged, adapted, reshaped, revitalized, preserved, and extolled. By historicizing his representations of race, ethnicity, and otherness, Mayer places Griffith within an overall template of American life in the years when film rivaled and then surpassed the theatre in popularity.
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1587298406
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
An actor, a vaudevillian, and a dramatist before he became a filmmaker, D. W. Griffith used the resources of theatre to great purpose and to great ends. In pioneering the quintessentially modern medium of film from the 1890s to the 1930s, he drew from older, more broadly appealing stage forms of melodrama, comedy, vaudeville, and variety. In Stagestruck Filmmaker, David Mayer brings Griffith’s process vividly to life, offering detailed and valuable insights into the racial, ethnic, class, and gender issues of these transitional decades. Combining the raw materials of theatre, circus, minstrelsy, and dance with the newer visual codes of motion pictures, Griffith became the first acknowledged artist of American film. Birth of a Nation in particular demonstrates the degree to which he was influenced by the racist justifications and distorting interpretations of the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Moving through the major phases of Griffith’s career in chapters organized around key films or groups of films, Mayer provides a mesmerizing account of the American stage and cinema in the final years of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. Griffith’s relationship to the theatre was intricate, complex, and enduring. Long recognized as the dominant creative figure of American motion pictures, throughout twenty-six years of making more than five hundred films he pillaged, adapted, reshaped, revitalized, preserved, and extolled. By historicizing his representations of race, ethnicity, and otherness, Mayer places Griffith within an overall template of American life in the years when film rivaled and then surpassed the theatre in popularity.
Thinking in Pictures
Author: Joyce E. Jesionowski
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067929
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Thinking in Pictures shows for the first time, in rigorous shot-by-shot analyses, what Griffith really did--and allows us to understand the implications for film narrative in general. Anyone with an interest in early cinema will find the book compelling, but the text will also intrigue readers seeking understanding of film usages on a more general, theoretical level. When Griffith began making films, the shot had been recognized as a basic element of film, the camera had a certain amount of freedom, transitional effects had been explored, audiences displayed an appetite for narrative. It was the synthesis of these elements, as Jesionowski traces it, that was Griffith's great achievement--for which he has always been honored by other filmmakers, by critics, and by audiences who continue to be moved and excited by his films. Thinking in Pictures shows for the first time, in rigorous shot-by-shot analyses, what Griffith really did--and allows us to understand the implications for film narrative in general. Anyone with an interest in early cinema will find the book compelling, but the text will also intrigue readers seeking understanding of film usages on a more general, theoretical level. When Griffith began making films, the shot had been recognized as a basic element of film, the camera had a certain amount of freedom, transitional effects had been explored, audiences displayed an appetite for narrative. It was the synthesis of these elements, as Jesionowski traces it, that was Griffith's great achievement--for which he has always been honored by other filmmakers, by critics, and by audiences who continue to be moved and excited by his films.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067929
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Thinking in Pictures shows for the first time, in rigorous shot-by-shot analyses, what Griffith really did--and allows us to understand the implications for film narrative in general. Anyone with an interest in early cinema will find the book compelling, but the text will also intrigue readers seeking understanding of film usages on a more general, theoretical level. When Griffith began making films, the shot had been recognized as a basic element of film, the camera had a certain amount of freedom, transitional effects had been explored, audiences displayed an appetite for narrative. It was the synthesis of these elements, as Jesionowski traces it, that was Griffith's great achievement--for which he has always been honored by other filmmakers, by critics, and by audiences who continue to be moved and excited by his films. Thinking in Pictures shows for the first time, in rigorous shot-by-shot analyses, what Griffith really did--and allows us to understand the implications for film narrative in general. Anyone with an interest in early cinema will find the book compelling, but the text will also intrigue readers seeking understanding of film usages on a more general, theoretical level. When Griffith began making films, the shot had been recognized as a basic element of film, the camera had a certain amount of freedom, transitional effects had been explored, audiences displayed an appetite for narrative. It was the synthesis of these elements, as Jesionowski traces it, that was Griffith's great achievement--for which he has always been honored by other filmmakers, by critics, and by audiences who continue to be moved and excited by his films.