[Film Club] INFJf Film Club - Week 1: The Birth of a Nation (1915)

SarahBS said:
Hey all
So I'm here again.I wanted to find a great deal of time to do this .but I guess 30mins a day will do it till Sunday
So sorry for the delay but we will start the next thread on Sun. (whether we're gonna change the process as [MENTION=13909]Satori[/MENTION] suggested or not -we're gonna start it on sun :m059:)
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Alright then :) So are we moving on to the next topic (montage) next week?
 
I don't know. I don't think it is boring at all. It's a document from a different time and age of cinema. If you don't want to go this far back, why don't we just move straight to the 70's?
 
ezra said:
I don't know. I don't think it is boring at all. It's a document from a different time and age of cinema. If you don't want to go this far back, why don't we just move straight to the 70's?
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Personally, I don't mind going that far back. I just found TBOAN
a difficult watch for the reasons I've previously mentioned.
Can you share your thoughts about the film?

I've seen Broken Blossoms as a replacement though.
It has a simpler story, so I've more easily noticed and appreciated the
innovative techniques that Griffith introduced to cinema through this film.
 

Director: D.W. Griffith

Before his films, let's share a bit of info about the man, David Wark Griffith.

Griffith-D.W.webp

So apparently, Griffith is tagged by many as "The Father of Film,"
as how he was featured in an episode of a 1993 series, "American Masters".

A few milestones in his early career:

- He directed the short Old California in 1910. It was the first film shot in Hollywood, California.

- He directed the first Hollywood feature film, The Birth of a Nation in 1915,
which became his most famous silent film, and also considered a landmark by film historians.
It was based on a novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr. titled, The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan.
This film was also very successful commercially and considered to be the first blockbuster motion picture.

- He founded United Artists in 1919, along with other respected names in the industry during the period.



Fairbanks_-_Pickford_-_Chaplin_-_Griffith.png



"Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Mary Pickford established United Artists in an attempt
to control their own work outside the established studio system run by movie moguls. UA would distribute and produce
their own films, and the actors would share in the profits rather than receiving just a straight contract salary.
It was the first serious effort of talented performers to create their own dream factory."
(Tim Dirks."Timeline of Greatest Film Milestones and Turning Points in Film History, The Year 1919." AMC Filmsite.
Accessed 15 Aug 2015 from http://www.filmsite.org/1919-filmhistory.html)
 

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Satori said:

Personally, I don't mind going that far back. I just found TBOAN
a difficult watch for the reasons I've previously mentioned.
Can you share your thoughts about the film?

I've seen Broken Blossoms as a replacement though.
It has a simpler story, so I've more easily noticed and appreciated the
innovative techniques that Griffith introduced to cinema through this film.
Click to expand...

It is certainly hard to look past the politics and what the film inspired. I like what Roger Ebert said about the evil of TBOAN:
"The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."

However, if you do you find that it revolutionized everything in cinema history.
The film was the first 12 reel-film in the US.
It was one of the first (if not the first) films to have an intermission.
Griffith stressed details down to the minutia. The Confederate soldiers all wore used uniforms, which were available because it hadn't been so long since the war!
The first film showed in the White House
Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the highest grossing films of all time.

The cinematography is superb. The story is compelling. This movie pushed every director to take cinema seriously, not just as a novelty creative outlet, but also a financially viable format.
 

Thank you for sharing that [MENTION=5601]ezra[/MENTION]. I agree that Griffith is definitely one of the trailblazers
in film-making, and has set high standards for other directors, during the time, and in the future.

---

Now here's my share-- a (popcorn) review of Griffith's 1919 film, Broken Blossoms.

Broken Blossoms was the first film released by United Artists.
It is adapted from a short story, The Chink and the Child, by Thomas Burke.
Though this is a character-centric story, it also tackles the social issues
during the time (or till today actually) such as domestic abuse, poverty, and racism.

The film is about a young girl fr. the London slums, Lucy,

brokenblossoms.webp

who suffers from physical abuse under the hands of her
prizefighter father, Battling Burrows,

6788f-vlcsnap-2012-11-15-08h41m05s247.webp

and a Chinese missionary, Cheng Huan,

BB1.webp

who migrated to England in hopes of spreading Buddhist ways.


Cheng, upon becoming bitterly disappointed by the ways of the people,
succumbed into a life of misery and addiction. Until he met Lucy,
whom he fell in love with. He took her in after a terrible beating from Battling,
treated her like a princess, and wished to save her from her horrible life.

No need for spoilers, but from the title itself, you can derive that it's a tragedy.
But I guess what gives this not-so-unique tale its life and timelessness is the telling of it.
Its charm lies in that little spark of light within the whole darkness of the story,
which was sensitively shown in the meeting of ways of these two forlorn characters.
Amidst the hopelessness and disillusionment they experience in each of their lives,
they had a brief moment wherein gentleness and purity became the prevailing presence.
And surely this little meeting gave justice to the tragic ending of the film.
As is perfectly described fr. Lucy's perspective, in one of its intertitles:
"She seems transformed-- into the dark chambers of her incredulous,
frightened little heart comes warmth and light."

Acting-wise, they were all pretty effective in playing their roles, esp. the 3 main characters.
But who I really admired was Ms. Lillian Gish (now referred to as the "First Lady of Silent Cinema").
The time she did the role, she was already in her mid-20s, but she played the role of Lucy,
a girl in her teens, so convincingly. Just looking at her eyes, you'd feel her despair and vulnerability.
Though the movements are still a bit exaggerated and theatrical (thus making some scenes
look somewhat comical), it's easy to appreciate this old style of acting for what it is,
instead of in comparison to the more laid back screen acting of modern cinema.


As for techniques in cinematography, where Griffith is considered a pioneer,
in this film you can see his use of:

- vignettes to highlight important elements & scenes in the story.

bb_smile.webp bb_smile_flowers.webp bb_closet.webp

- color tinting, or the changes in color tones for different settings.

bb_color1.webp bb_color2.webp bb_color3.webp bb_color7.webp
bb_color4.webp bb_color5.webp bb_color6.webp

- intercutting between spontaneous events, and fade out transitions.


I also like the content of the intertitles, in that they don't just contain dialogues for a
certain event, but there are some poetic narratives that are perfectly apt for some scenes.

bb_flute.webp

"Breathing in an amber flute to this alabaster cockney girl her love name-- White Blossom."

bb_pure.webp

"His love remains a pure and holy thing -- even his worst foe says this."



Finally, though the title Broken Blossoms outrightly tells of Lucy's state of loneliness & maltreatment,
it can also be thought of as a metaphor, not unlike that of crushed petals of a flower,
for that small whiff of hope that she brought upon the acrid grief of the Limehouse.

"The Spirit of Beauty breaks her blossoms all about his chamber." (Griffith)
 
[MENTION=5601]ezra[/MENTION] have you finished watching the birth of a nation?
What is the proclamation President Lincoln signed and then he cried after?
 
[MENTION=13909]Satori[/MENTION] [MENTION=5601]ezra[/MENTION] I'm finally here with the my review . Sorry if it's not professional or detailed. This was my first time :P

The Birth of a Nation (1915)
|* 165 min *|* Drama, History, Romance

The Civil War divides friends and destroys families, but that's nothing compared to the anarchy in the black-ruled South after the war.
IMDB rating: 6.8/10

Writing credits
Thomas Dixon Jr.
adapted from his novel: "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan" (as Thomas F. Dixon Jr.)
Thomas Dixon Jr.
play "The Clansman" (as Thomas F. Dixon Jr.)
Thomas Dixon Jr.
novel "The Leopard's Spots" (as Thomas F. Dixon Jr.)
D.W. Griffith
Frank E. Woods


The movie could be rather tedious at the beginning as we are accustomed to the technologies used in film making today; but if you're a patient movie addict you will experience a completely new art in cinema.

The film chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction era: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.
'From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation> '

Two families , two young men in love but the cruelty and inhumanity of war could ruin everything …
The movie has an absorbing story. Consisted of two main plots :

Part 1: Civil War of United States

Death and distraction
Assassination of Lincoln
Two families are together again although in sorrow of their lose …

Part 2: Reconstruction
Death of the little sister was such a tragedy. I imagined myself as the mother and I was wondering how she managed the sorrow.

We expect to see good will and reconstruction after war but anarchy in the black was even worse than war .
So we see more destruction as well. The intervention of KKK saved people from the greed.Although I don't know if their cause was always for good- I need to read more about it.

--------------
Direction
I found Griffith an open-hearted person, you need to be much caring to create e movie like this-I wonder what MBTI type he was !

Cinematography
As for techniques in cinematography, Griffith really knew what to do.
As [MENTION=13909]Satori[/MENTION] mentioned
vignettes to highlight important elements & scenes in the story.
And
- color tinting, or the changes in color tones for different settings in appropriate situations.

Writing
In some part especially for the war , I think the scenes were of a too much length .Although maybe Griffith thought that it was really necessary to speak all about it in details .

Editing: In some parts , I thought the editing needed more to work on. Some parts were
choppy .In some parts the scene starts but the actors weren't acting. E.g.: In the scene of disarming the blacks. 03:09:22

Costume design
KKK customs were the same as all I'd ever seen. I think as [MENTION=5601]ezra[/MENTION] said they were the real costumes. I was actually scared The first moment I saw them!

Set design
There's nothing to say about it. Everything was great.

Soundtrack
In my point of view the music could have been a little sadder since especially in the scenes of the war, While I was watching that part, I was thinking that the music could be more suitable for a ball scene.
Except from that I really think music was a very crucial part in silent era, as they the director could show the ups and downs of the emotion with the use of music.
I was touched by the great piece of music in the scene after the death of the youngest girl , and the plea of the young man against his father.
------------
​

| Throughout the movie you can feel what war can do to people's hearts. And that people get to live their own lives even with all the pain. That you're alive regarding to whatever that has happened and you
have to keep on going and you don't know who strong you really are!

|| Frankly I never thought a movie in silent era -without any conversation could be as fascinating! And it still is a masterpiece.
 
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It appears there are some DW Griffith fans and some Trampoholics in here!

I have seen most of Chaplin's films (including the shorts) not out of a desire to "check one off the list", but because they are utterly and wholly fantastic. They make a great segue into the silent film side of things for those not accustomed to that style of film.

I am not good at quantifying what I have experienced in watching a film, and so I will not make an attempt and possibly embarrass myself. You guys seem to have some good taste in film, though.
 
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