International photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

Twenty-four T It INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER April, 1935 definite consciousness of filmic pulse or pace, on the one hand, and an acute sense of the exigencies of dramatic suspense on the other. Griffith's timing-instinct is always superb and is equalled only by his balanced and rational sense of architecture. This is proved by his mastery of the enormously complicated episodic material of the story of The Birth of a Nation. In contrast to Eisenstein, his unit of reference is the scene rather than the individual shot. Thus, his cutting-pace is slower, though it is much faster than the pace prevalent in the regular Hollywood product. The vigorous interplay of scenes, the ingenious dovetailing of incident, the powerful counterpoint of thematic elements, of motifs — all these may be designated as the dynamic characteristics of Griffith's montage The added fact that he often cuts for pure overtone, as in the ride of the clansmen, merely goes to show that he was able to transcend his basic method. From the preceding remarks, something of the concrete technical value of this picture ought to be plain to the film student. Viewed retrospectively, the historical significance of The Birth of a Nation looms greater with time. Apart from its lasting worth as a creative achievement, it established so many precedents in the realm of cinema, that it would be tedious to enumerate all of them. Because of its length, its division into two "acts," the two-dollar admission prices, and principally, because it was the first film to be presented with an original orchestral accompaniment (Joseph Carl Breil composed the score which consisted mainly of original music and American folk-themes) it lifted the motion picture from the lowly position of a tag at the end of vaudeville shows to the level of the so-called legitimate drama. This tour de force had a constructive effect in two ways. While it served as a rebuke to reactionary and prejudiced critics who, like Walter Prichard Eaton, the last of the theater's "Old Guard," had scorned the movie as an art, at the same time it taught the magnates of the Hollywood film industry a lesson which they had lacked the faith and vision — or more likely the intention — to learn for themselves: i. e., that a film of unassailable artistic integrity, taking two and a half hours to unfold an important historical theme, could also be a gigantic commercial success. A measure of this healthy creative influence later found its way into other American historical films, such as The Covered Wagon and Cimarron ; and even into German productions such as Passion {Du Barry) and Deception (Henry VIII). Happily, the stigma of having initiated the "star system" cannot be laid at the door of The Birth of a Nation. Its cast, however, includes the names of two dozen leading players, of whom the majority have since become famous, either through their connection with this production, or through careers that began with it. After twenty years, at least half of these remain familiar names to movie fans throughout the Western World — Lillian Gish, Henry B. Walthall, Mae Marsh, Mary Alden, Ralph Lewis, Wallace Reid, George Siegmann, Elmo Lincoln, Walter Long, Donald Crisp, Raoul Walsh and Elmer Clifton. The last two are known today as the directors of The Thief of Bagdad and Down to the Sea in Ships, respectively. Late in February, 1915, advertisements, heralding the arrival of the Griffith masterpiece, claimed the "Dawn of a New Art Which Marks an Epoch in the Theaters of the World." This pronouncement was no mere press agent's blurb. It was the very nearly unanimous opinion of the intellectual and theatrical world of America. Sir Herbert Tree, over here on an acting tour, declared the picture signified "the birth of a new art — and a newartist," and less than a month after the New York premiere, a critic, Richard Barry, writing in the Magazine Section of the New York Times, hailed Griffith as "a producer without a rival ... a generalissimo of mimic forces whose work has never been equalled ... a triumphant Columbus of the screen." Perhaps the history of cinema reveals no other occasion on which a film of the highest order of importance has elicited rapturous and instantaneous approval from the public and critics alike. A concluding word: A plan to re-make The Birth of a Nation under the direction of D. W. Griffith has been lately under the serious consideration of some of the original stockholders. Nothing, in the opinion of this writer, could be more ill-advised, incongruous or downright dangerous than this move. It does not affect the mind less disconcertingly to hear, say, of a proposed plan to re-paint the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, to make second versions of these, than to hear of this vulgar absurdity of having Griffith remake The Birth of a Nation. The unique sign of a true work of art is precisely its irreproduceability. Why tempt Fate and the wrath of critics into a ridiculous and deadly anti-climax by tackling historical material which has already been so superbly realized that it defies all efforts at reproduction? The artistic folly of this is ghastly; its moral irresponsibility, worse. An essentially mediocre production, devoid of the fine heroic sweep that made the original and authentic work great, but loaded, on the other hand, with the same high explosives of racial strife and faction, unpurified in this case by the masterful agency of Art, would cause endless havoc and might even bring in its wake an intensified reaction of screen censorship and suppression. Such a production would definitely not swell the backers' pocketbooks with the same fat profits which they anticipate, and at the same time it would contribute nothing to Griffith's reputation. It would serve no useful purpose beyond that of providing an expensive object-lesson of the truth that the basis of any great film is not the story, but the creative treatment, and that if the identical story is filmed twice, it does not signify that the second film is the same film as the first, much less a better one. Merely human considerations — the memory of the bloody race riots provoked by The Birth of a Nation in years past — should dissuade the stockholders from their plan. In any case, should they ignore these warnings, the dismal nemesis of a colossal artistic anti-climax, together with justified racial and class war, awaits thtir misguided efforts. MAX FACTOR'S N EW LIQUID FOUNDATION A REVELATION IN FACIAL MAKE-UP Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.