- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,311
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Archivist Kevin Brownlow once said: "D.W. Griffith talk the cinema to walk. Abel Gance gave it wings."
This could not be more true.
Spend some time, beginning in 1908 with the early Griffith Biograph films, and you'll be witness to the birth of true editing, pacing and real cinematography. By the time Mr. Griffith set out to make longer films in 1914, the language of the cinema was firmly in place.
His next production as director (Intolerance) would come just one year later, and the difference between the two in terms of growth could not be more interesting.
The grown of the language of cinema did not come from thin air. Between 1908 and 1915, he directed OVER 500 short films.
Much like the tinkering of films today, especially for home video, Mr. Griffith continued to cut and re-cut his films over the years. Any attempt to perfectly reconstruct the film that opened in 1915 is problematic at best, but Kino's Blu-ray is a very good representation of the film may have been like. Unfortunately, nearly a century of wear and abuse has not shown brightly on TBoaN. While the new Kino Blu-ray is a quality affair, one can only image what this film would have looked like in all its nitrate tinted glory.
Running at 18fps, viewers will note that every third frame is reproduced as a fourth to bring the speed up to norm, but this goes by almost transparently.
One does not view TBoaN for entertainment. One also does not view it for history, or the way that it treats blacks, mostly herein played by white actors.
One views this film as an extremely important artifact of our early cinema, as the lessons it teaches as to where our modern cinemas roots began, could not be more important.
This film has not been digitally restored, and that is probably for the best. It is what it is, and the quality more than suffices to the need.
Recommended.
RAH
This could not be more true.
Spend some time, beginning in 1908 with the early Griffith Biograph films, and you'll be witness to the birth of true editing, pacing and real cinematography. By the time Mr. Griffith set out to make longer films in 1914, the language of the cinema was firmly in place.
His next production as director (Intolerance) would come just one year later, and the difference between the two in terms of growth could not be more interesting.
The grown of the language of cinema did not come from thin air. Between 1908 and 1915, he directed OVER 500 short films.
Much like the tinkering of films today, especially for home video, Mr. Griffith continued to cut and re-cut his films over the years. Any attempt to perfectly reconstruct the film that opened in 1915 is problematic at best, but Kino's Blu-ray is a very good representation of the film may have been like. Unfortunately, nearly a century of wear and abuse has not shown brightly on TBoaN. While the new Kino Blu-ray is a quality affair, one can only image what this film would have looked like in all its nitrate tinted glory.
Running at 18fps, viewers will note that every third frame is reproduced as a fourth to bring the speed up to norm, but this goes by almost transparently.
One does not view TBoaN for entertainment. One also does not view it for history, or the way that it treats blacks, mostly herein played by white actors.
One views this film as an extremely important artifact of our early cinema, as the lessons it teaches as to where our modern cinemas roots began, could not be more important.
This film has not been digitally restored, and that is probably for the best. It is what it is, and the quality more than suffices to the need.
Recommended.
RAH