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Nov 3, 2009 · Griffith’s final film for Biograph, Judith of Bethulia, was an adventure for all involved, since Griffith’s company of actors and technicians (nearly all of whom would follow him when he left Biograph) had never made a film nearly as long or spectacular. Griffith assured Blanche, then seventeen, that her great (but short) co-star Henry B. Walthall would “measure up” as General Holofernes.
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over 3000 short films and 12 feature films .
Biograph Company, one of the major American motion-picture studios in the early days of filmmaking, founded as the American Mutoscope Company in 1895. It was known for many of its early production efforts, including filming U.S. presidential candidate William McKinley on the campaign trail in 1896, Pope Leo XIII at the Vatican in 1899, and U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt at the White House in ...
Griffith was forced to leave United Artists after Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) failed at the box office. United Artists founders Griffith, Pickford, Chaplin and Fairbanks sign their contract for the cameras in 1919. He made Lady of the Pavements (1929), a part sound film, and only two full-sound films: Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931).
- Overview
- The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance
- Legacy
In 1913 Griffith left Biograph and entered into an agreement with Mutual Films for the direction and supervision of motion pictures. From this association, among other films, came The Birth of a Nation. With the official opening of the film under the title The Clansman, at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles on February 8, 1915, the infant art of the motion picture was revolutionized. The film was subsequently lionized for its radical technique and condemned for its racist philosophy. Filmed at a cost of $110,000, it returned millions of dollars in profits, making it, perhaps, the most profitable film of all time, although a full accounting has never been made.
After screenings of the film had caused riots at several theatres, however, The Birth of a Nation was censored in many cities, including New York City, and Griffith became an ardent opponent of censorship of the motion picture. His next important film, Intolerance (1916), was, in part, an answer to his critics.
Intolerance, a film of epic proportions, combined four separate stories: the fall of ancient Babylon to the hordes of Cyrus, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of the Huguenots in 16th-century France, the Crucifixion of Jesus, and a contemporary story dealing with a wrongfully condemned man. The giant settings, especially the one representing ancient Babylon, have remained a benchmark for motion-picture spectacle, and the opulent settings for 16th-century Paris were almost equally impressive. Griffith interwove the four stories in an increasingly complex manner until all were brought to resolution in a controlled torrent of images that still leaves the viewer breathless. Only the contemporary story was given a happy ending. The film ends with an allegorical plea for the end of war through divine intervention, indicated through superimpositions of heavenly hosts above a flower-strewn battlefield. The film was an artistic success on its presentation in New York City on September 5, 1916, but proved to be a financial failure. Nevertheless, tribute has been paid to its seminal influence on the work done by many film directors. Almost unanimously, critics have hailed Intolerance as the finest achievement of the silent film.
Most of Griffith’s profits from The Birth of a Nation were used and lost in the making of Intolerance, but he was able to secure the financing for the building of his own studio in Mamaroneck, New York. His films were to be released through United Artists, a motion-picture distributor of which he was a founding partner, with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks. Despite making such distinguished films as Broken Blossoms (1919) and Orphans of the Storm (1921), and an extremely profitable film, Way Down East (1920), his studio foundered on the failure of lesser films and the business recession of the first half of the 1920s.
In 1913 Griffith left Biograph and entered into an agreement with Mutual Films for the direction and supervision of motion pictures. From this association, among other films, came The Birth of a Nation. With the official opening of the film under the title The Clansman, at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles on February 8, 1915, the infant art of the motion picture was revolutionized. The film was subsequently lionized for its radical technique and condemned for its racist philosophy. Filmed at a cost of $110,000, it returned millions of dollars in profits, making it, perhaps, the most profitable film of all time, although a full accounting has never been made.
After screenings of the film had caused riots at several theatres, however, The Birth of a Nation was censored in many cities, including New York City, and Griffith became an ardent opponent of censorship of the motion picture. His next important film, Intolerance (1916), was, in part, an answer to his critics.
Intolerance, a film of epic proportions, combined four separate stories: the fall of ancient Babylon to the hordes of Cyrus, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of the Huguenots in 16th-century France, the Crucifixion of Jesus, and a contemporary story dealing with a wrongfully condemned man. The giant settings, especially the one representing ancient Babylon, have remained a benchmark for motion-picture spectacle, and the opulent settings for 16th-century Paris were almost equally impressive. Griffith interwove the four stories in an increasingly complex manner until all were brought to resolution in a controlled torrent of images that still leaves the viewer breathless. Only the contemporary story was given a happy ending. The film ends with an allegorical plea for the end of war through divine intervention, indicated through superimpositions of heavenly hosts above a flower-strewn battlefield. The film was an artistic success on its presentation in New York City on September 5, 1916, but proved to be a financial failure. Nevertheless, tribute has been paid to its seminal influence on the work done by many film directors. Almost unanimously, critics have hailed Intolerance as the finest achievement of the silent film.
Most of Griffith’s profits from The Birth of a Nation were used and lost in the making of Intolerance, but he was able to secure the financing for the building of his own studio in Mamaroneck, New York. His films were to be released through United Artists, a motion-picture distributor of which he was a founding partner, with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks. Despite making such distinguished films as Broken Blossoms (1919) and Orphans of the Storm (1921), and an extremely profitable film, Way Down East (1920), his studio foundered on the failure of lesser films and the business recession of the first half of the 1920s.
More than any other individual, Griffith developed the techniques through which motion pictures became an art form—an instrument able to express emotions and ideas. A genius in the art of the film who never worked with a script, he innovated continually in the use of camera angles and movement, in lighting, and, especially, in editing and tempo, an...
- Robert M. Henderson
Oct 28, 2024 · Griffith began his film career in late 1907 as an actor. He was cast as the lead in the Edison Company’s Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1907) and also appeared in many Biograph films. He had already attempted to make a living as a stage actor and a playwright without much success, and his real goal in approaching the film companies seems to ...
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Oct 14, 2009 · Henri Matisse said, “My purpose is to render my emotion… I think only of rendering my emotion.” Film history textbooks dutifully catalog the elements of cinematic grammar and expressiveness that D. W. Griffith invented or refined in his five years at Biograph (in collaboration with his cinematographer G. W. “Billy” Bitzer [1872–1944], who worked at the Museum Film Library late in ...
