The Griffith Project: v. 8: Films Produced in 1914

by Usai, Paolo Cherchi

• ISBN13: 9781844570430
• ISBN10: 1844570436
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-30
• Publisher: British Film Inst

Summary

No other silent film director has been as extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than five hundred films has been the subject of a systematic analysis, and the vast majority of his other works still await proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith--from Professional Jealousy (1907) to The Struggle (1931) --will be explored in this multivolume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field. Created as a companion to the ongoing retrospective held by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, the Griffith Project is an indispensable guide to the work of a crucial figure in the arts of the nineteenth century. The latest volume assesses Griffith's work in 1914-15. It includes an extensive, multi-authored evaluation of The Birth of a Nation.

Author Biography

Paolo Cherchi Usai, Senior Curator of the Motion Picutre Department at George Eastman House, is director of the L.Jeffrey Salznick School of Film Preservation and associate professor to film at the University of Rochester. He is co-organizer of the Pordenone Silent film Festival and author of Silent Cimema: An Introduction (2000) and The Death of Cinema (2001) both published by BFI Publishing.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Notes on Contributors	xii
Note on Layout	xiv
502. The Great Leap; or, Until Death Do Us Part	1	(3)
503. The Battle of the Sexes	4	(4)
504. The Gangsters	8	(4)
505. The Escape	12	(3)
506. The Floor Above	15	(3)
507. The Dishonored Medal	18	(6)
508. The Mountain Rat	24	(4)
509. Home, Sweet Home	28	(12)
510. The Avenging Conscience	40	(6)
511. The Painted Lady	46	(3)
512. [Production footage of The Birth of a Nation]	49	(1)
513. The Birth of a Nation	50	(63)
PRODUCTION	55	(7)
STYLE AND TECHNIQUE	62	(7)
PERFORMANCE AND CHARACTERIZATION	69	(12)
THEATRICAL SOURCES	81	(6)
MUSIC	87	(4)
DISTRIBUTION AND RECEPTION	91	(7)
POLITICS	98	(9)
NON-ARCHIVAL SOURCES	107	(6)
514. Enoch Arden	113	(3)
515. Ghosts	116	(2)
516. Pillars of Society	118	(3)
517. The Martyrs of the Alamo	121	(3)
518. The Lamb	124	(4)
519. Old Heidelberg	128	(3)
520. The Sable Lorcha	131	(4)
521. The Lily and the Rose	135	(3)
522. Double Trouble	138	(3)
523. Jordan Is a Hard Road	141	(3)
524. The Penitentes	144	(4)
525. Cross Currents	148	(3)
526. Let Katie Do It	151	(2)
527. The Missing Links	153	(3)
528. Don Quixote	156	(4)
529. The Wood Nymph	160	(2)
530. His Picture in the Papers	162	(2)
531. Martha's Vindication	164	(3)
532. Daphne and the Pirate	167	(3)
533. The Flying Torpedo	170	(4)
Bibliography	174	(2)
Index of Titles: 1914-1915	176	(1)
Cumulative Index of Titles: 1907-1915	177