David Wark Griffith

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David Wark Griffith (1907)

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith , often just DW Griffith (born January 22, 1875 in La Grange , Oldham County , Kentucky , † July 23, 1948 in Hollywood , California ) was an American director , screenwriter , producer and actor . He made a total of 535 films between 1908 and the early 1930s, more than 400 of which are still extant, and is considered one of the most influential directors in film history.

Griffith is often referred to as the founder of narrative cinema and the creator of "cinematic grammar". In fact, he systematized rather than invented himself. During his time with the film company Biograph (1908 to 1913) he was one of the first to consistently use elements such as close-ups , parallel montages and many others and later perfected them in his trend-setting feature films. In particular, his film epics The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) became milestones in film history. He was one of the founders of the United Artists film studio and the Hollywood film industry in general.

Life

David W. Griffith and Kathryn Osterman in the play Miss Petticoats , 1903

Youth, first work experience

David Wark Griffith was born on January 22, 1875 on a farm in rural Oldham County , Kentucky, to Jacob Griffith and his wife, Mary Perkins. The father had as an officer ( Colonel ) in the American Civil War in the Confederate Army served and died, was when his son only ten years old. The half- orphan received his education in a one-room school from his older sister Mattie Griffith; the children grew up Methodist . When Griffith was 14 years old, the mother gave up her farm and moved with him to Louisville . There the mother opened a boarding house , which she had to close after a short time due to failure. To support his family, Griffith dropped out of high school and subsequently worked in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore.

Eventually Griffith got into show business as a stage actor. He played with mixed success in various theater groups that traveled across the United States and usually played on the less prestigious stages of the country. His 13 years as a stage actor were at the same time a formative influence; many of his films have an economical, clear narrative style and are more often based on stage material. On the side, Griffith tried his hand at play as a playwright, but only one of his many plays was accepted and performed, but it had only mediocre success. In 1907 Griffith tried to sell one of his plays to the film producer Edwin S. Porter . He turned down the play, but gave Griffith a small role as an actor in Rescued from an Eagle's Nest by James Searle Dawley , which marked his film debut.

Film career

DW Griffith (1921)

After his positive experience at Rescued from an Eagle's Nest , Griffith felt drawn to the film business and accepted an actor contract with the American Biograph film studio . As biographs lead director Wallace McCutcheon sr. fell ill and his son McCutcheon Jr. as a substitute brought only a poor performance, the acting Griffith was used as a director. The film, entitled The Adventures of Dollie , was released in 1908. The producers were so pleased with the result that they let Griffith direct other films.

In 1910, Griffith directed In Old California , probably the first film to be shot entirely in Hollywood . Griffith was one of the discoverers of Hollywood for the film industry and shot there because of the sunny weather, the landscape and the amount of space. His numerous short films at Biograph already testified to cinematic innovations and Griffith quickly built a good reputation in the young film industry. To this day, many of Griffith's short films of this time have been examined and discussed in terms of film studies. His biographical film Judith von Bethulien (1914) with Blanche Sweet , a film adaptation of the book Judit , was one of the first feature films in the United States of America and received good reviews. However, he was also criticized because of the involvement of an orgy scene .

Griffith in the Director's Chair (1922)

For his three-hour film The Birth of a Nation about the American Civil War , completed in 1915 , in which he clearly sided with the Southern States and glorified the Ku Klux Klan , Griffith became more historical when it was released because of the open racism against African Americans in the film and a distortion Criticized facts about the American Civil War. The film is based on the novel The Clansman (1905) by Thomas Dixon (1864-1946), which is also influenced by contemporary racism . The Birth of a Nation was the most expensive, but also the most successful work in the still short film history. With a record length of three hours, numerous crowd scenes and many cinematic innovations, The Birth of a Nation is, according to film historians, “the most important single work in American film history and a key work in the entire history of film. It contains many innovations and improvements in film technology, technical effects and artistic achievements, including a color sequence at the end. He had a formative influence on future films and had a noticeable impact on film history and the development of film as an art form. ” Griffith is today mainly because of The Birth of a Nation whose positive portrayal of the Klan inspired the emergence of a new Ku Klux Klan controversial.

In contrast , the work Intoleranz , published the following year, turned out to be a financial disaster . With this even more ambitious and even more expensive film, Griffith wanted to show how intolerance has always determined human fate. Using parallel and contrasting montages , Griffith described four episodes - the fall of Babylon, the Passion of Christ, St. Bartholomew's Night and the contemporary story “The Mother and the Law”. The film, in which Griffith also shares pacifist and humanist views, is now considered a masterpiece in film history. After the First World War was picked up at the end of Intolerance , Griffith devoted himself to this in detail in his almost two-hour film Hearts of the World . The film project, shot in England and France, was supported by the British government to get the US to give up its long US neutral stance during World War I.

Left to Right: Griffith, Pickford, Chaplin and Fairbanks; the founders of United Artists

After Hearts of the World , Griffith turned back to films on a smaller and more personal scale, his acting leadership in the melodramas Broken Blossoms and True Heart Susie (both 1919) was again highly praised. The leading actress in both films was Lillian Gish , who also played Griffiths in many other films. Also because she worked intensively on Griffith's cinematic legacy until her death in 1993, their names are often associated with one another in the American public. In addition to Lillian Gish, Griffith used many other actors over and over again over the years and decisively promoted the careers of young actresses and actors such as Mary Pickford , Mae Marsh , Dorothy Gish , Richard Barthelmess , Robert Harron and Carol Dempster . Also in 1919 Griffith founded the film company United Artists together with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks senior and Charlie Chaplin .

His last great successes include the two and a half hour work Far in the East (1920), in which Lillian Gish struggles for survival in a famous scene on an icy river, and Two Orphans in the Storm (1921), who with the Gish sisters in the Treats leading roles in the French Revolution. In the course of the 1920s, Griffith's films had increasing problems at the box office, because the often lavish productions almost automatically had to become big box office hits in order to make a profit at all. In addition, Griffith's films, which were often based on older theatrical models and dealt with melodramatic themes, appeared antiquated with their partly Victorian worldview to the younger or more progressive viewers in the Roaring Twenties . After several failures he had to leave the United Artists in 1924, for example his large-scale independence war epic America and the social drama Isn't Life Wonderful , set and filmed in Germany, were previously . was received disappointingly at the box office.

David Wark Griffith made other films of varying quality in the late 1920s, but they no longer achieved the response of his earlier works. In 1930 he shot the lavish biopic Abraham Lincoln , in which Walter Huston played the title role, his first complete sound film (his Lady of the Pavements from 1929 had a few sound film sequences). But despite good reviews, Abraham Lincoln was a failure at the box office, as was his next film, The Battle (1931), about an alcoholic husband. Griffith then withdrew from the film business.

Later life and private matters

In 1936 Griffith was awarded the Honorary Oscar for his life's work. In 1940 he attempted a comeback directing the adventure film Tumak, The Lord of the Jungle (One Million BC) , but left the director's chair after an argument with producer Hal Roach . The film was completed by Roach himself.

Griffith was married twice: from 1906 to 1936 with the actress Linda Arvidson (1884-1949), then from 1936 to 1947 with the actress Evelyn Baldwin (1910-2004). Both marriages ended in divorce. He spent the last part of his life at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles . He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1948 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Centerfield, Kentucky cemetery.

Awards and honors

American postage stamp commemorating Griffith's 100th birthday in 1975

In addition, numerous directors such as John Ford , Alfred Hitchcock , Orson Welles , Lev Kuleshov , Jean Renoir , Cecil B. DeMille , King Vidor , Victor Fleming , Raoul Walsh , Carl Theodor Dreyer , Sergei Eisenstein and Stanley Kubrick bowed to Griffith or certain of his works . Charlie Chaplin called him " The Teacher of Us All " and noted that the entire film industry owes its existence to Griffith. Orson Welles said, “I never really hated Hollywood except for treating DW Griffith. No city, no industry, no profession, no art owes so much to a single man. "

From its Erstverleihung 1953-1999 was Honorary Award for lifetime achievement ( Lifetime Achievement Award ) of the Directors Guild of America named after Griffith. In 1999, Griffith's name dropped out of the award because, according to DGA President Jack Shea, although one knew about Griffith's merits and influences, with the new millennium, the racist stereotypes reinforced by Griffith films had to be viewed critically.

Filmography (selection)

Cinema poster The birth of a nation

literature

Web links

Commons : David Wark Griffith  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brockhaus20, Vol. 9, p. 146 & Britannica online.
  2. ↑ David Wark Griffith. In: prisma . Retrieved March 30, 2021 .
  3. ↑ David Wark Griffith at AllMovie , accessed October 26, 2020 (English)
  4. ↑ Melvyn Stokes: Stagestruck Filmmaker: DW Griffith and the American Theater . In: Journal of American History . tape 98 , no. 3 , December 1, 2011, ISSN  0021-8723 , p. 857-858 , doi : 10.1093 / jahist / jar384 ( oup.com [accessed October 26, 2020]).
  5. ^ DW Griffith. Retrieved October 26, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Hollywood - HISTORY. Retrieved October 26, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Tom Ogden: Haunted Hollywood: Tinseltown Terrors, Filmdom Phantoms, and Movieland Mayhem . Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4930-1578-8 ( google.de [accessed October 26, 2020]).
  8. ^ The Birth of a Nation (1915). At www.filmsite.org. Accessed March 6, 2014.
  9. ↑ Ku Klux Klan - With Burning Crosses for a White and Protestant America. Retrieved October 26, 2020 .
  10. ↑ DW Griffith | About DW Griffith | American Masters | PBS. December 29, 1998; Retrieved October 26, 2020 (American English).
  11. ↑ Charlie Chaplin at IMDb - Quotes
  12. ^ DW Griffith
  13. ^ DGA Retires DW Griffith Award - Guild to Create a New Career Achievement Award -. Retrieved October 26, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Griffith, David Wark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griffith, David Lewelyn Wark (full name); Griffith, DW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor, director, and film producer
BIRTH DATE January 22, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH La Grange , Kentucky , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1948
PLACE OF DEATH Hollywood , California , United States