1909 Part 2: The End of a Decade

Hello again! I know it's been awhile...i've been lazy. But i'm back again and we will finish this decade!!

We start this second part with more Griffith...shoot me.

I'm a theatre major, as you should know from the title of this blog, so I know Shakespeare pretty well. I've seen and been a part of numerous productions of his plays including Macbeth, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, and of course Midsummer Night's Dream. Now I understand that this was made over 100 years ago but even so the material had been around over 300 years at this point you couldn't think of SOMETHING new to bring the table Griffith? Also the editing was absolutely atrocious. It's one thing for pieces of film to be missing but to cut in extremely weird places for no discernible reason was extremely annoying and lazy on Griffith's part. The only thing that was done kind of okay was Puck's flying and even that was less than stellar. It's just bad.

Next up we finally have a film that was made by someone who isn't freaking D.W. Griffith. Mr. Flip by Gilbert M. Anderson

I'm slightly saddened by this film. I've heard of the greatness of Ben Turpin and this was said to be the first evidence pie-to-the-face comedy in film, so I expected it to be good. By the end of the film I was just confused and not even close to amused. Throughout the entire film this guy fucks with these women and then they mess with him in return. It was meant to be playful but he went around and rubbed their faces and in return he gets stabbed in the ass, electrocuted, and shot in the face with seltzer water...how is that fair? And on top of all of that why would a pie in the face end his shenanigans? We'll never know I guess.

Now the return of J. Stuart Blackton with Princess Nicotine.

I. Don't. Understand. This whole lack of consistency trend is grating on my nerves. I don't understand why the dude was using a magnifying glass to see a fairy that was at least a foot tall. I don't understand why the pipe fairy wasn't burned when she was being lit whilst in said pipe. I don't understand how a seemingly normal person sees a few fairies and is like OH HAI this is TOTES a normal occurrence...puh-lease. I don't understand why the magnifying glass shot was used...when he wasn't using a magnifying glass. I just don't understand.

And now for another installment of Racism 101 by D.W. Griffith with The Red Man's View.

I'm only going to say a few things about this because it really doesn't warrant a full response. The cinematography was good but no amount of pretty shots will help me like this film. The blatant disregard for actual Native American traditions is appalling. I can't...UGH. This is actually worse than Edison's foray into exploitation back in the 1890s. Le sigh.

Griffith...again. The Sealed Room.

I'm giving up...I really am. I thought I could still find redeeming qualities about Griffith's work but no! My main problem with him is not even his random stories or over dramatizations it's the fact that he simply doesn't know or care about the actual world he bases his stories in. The room they were in was about 10 or 12 feet high by about 18 to 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep. At the lowest estimations that is 1800 cubic feet of air. Let's say at most they were breathing 3 cubic feet worth of air per hour...it would take 600 HOURS for them to run out of air...that's 25 days!!! So HOW in the hell did they die in a matter of seconds!? DO YOUR RESEARCH GRIFFITH...UGH WOAVGUJsduhvdsjfnviuhngv[sAHRDVKJDRBGV973wqgrfbco8ubseqign.

Those Awful Hats...Griffith

UM...okay? It was a pre-show message for, i'm assuming, a major problem back then. Instead of turn off your cell phones (or this gem from Texas:

) they had this...I think. That said I liked the movie within a movie thing...meaning the effect was done relatively well. That's about it...it wasn't funny and thankfully it was only 2 minutes.

And finally...ending the decade with A Trap for Santa Claus...this should be interesting. 

I won't pass full judgement because it is a fragment but again Griffith lacks complete common sense and has the outdoor scenes in broad daylight...while the indoor scenes were clearly at night. I couldn't even think about what was going on because that bothered me so much. Awesome way to end the decade -_-. 

That's it folks. Next post (hopefully Sunday) will kind of be a summary as i'll post my favorite flicks and then next week we'll get into the 1910s! Thanks for reading and stay cool! 

1908: The Birth of a D.W. Griffith

I'm back! Sorry about that whole vacation thing...parents were in town for my birthday and I didn't really have time to sit down and watch movies. That said, this week I will be going through the rest of the decade (ahead of schedule)! Today is when we start 1908. This is the year D.W. Griffith got hired as a director for Biograph pictures. He would go on to make 500 films through 1913 and in 1915 he would make the controversial Birth of a Nation (originally titled The Clansmen). Let's get started!

First up in today's line up is The Adventures of Dollie by D.W. Griffith.

Going into this film, and this director, I was extremely apprehensive. I heard from legions of film major friends the Mr. Griffith was...long winded (to say the least) and I really wasn't looking forward to it. Having seen his first film I can say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. This doesn't mean I'm a huge fan but there are many things that I did enjoy. First of all the lack of a sound stage was amazing. The entire film was shot outside and while I have a problem with the story (rather how long the story took), I was grateful for the scenes to take place in their natural habitat instead of being fabricated and goofy looking (Melies -_-). Hopefully we can stay on this trend of well done films...

Next up is another animated piece called Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohle.

1 minute and 20 seconds (approximately). That's how long this animated film was. It was over a minute of...nothing. I don't deny that the animation was pretty impressive for 1908 but that doesn't mean all forms of story need to be thrown out of the window! The little cartoon could have gone on a quick adventure to the zoo or around the city or SOMETHING! I don't understand how just because it's animated means there can't be any story. Thank the world for Disney (although he doesn't come in to feature films until 1937). He actually told stories with his films...crazy I know.

Now we have an Edison studios production starring D.W. Griffith called Rescued From an Eagle's Nest.

It can't be an Edison studios production without me getting highly confused and/or upset at something. Low and behold I wanted to throw my computer again. This time it was the lack of storytelling that happened. Let me sum up what I could gather from this film: bird picks up child, mother tries to shoot bird but can't, mother and father (with some friends) go on a search, father climbs down to fight bird (WHAT?!), father grabs child from off screen, father and child are pulled up to safety. My question is how the HELL did they know where the bird/kid were...the audience doesn't know so how do they know? That's what I mean by lack of storytelling. For example when you summarize a novel there is a story that is being said but there is no storytelling. All it would have taken is two shots, one that showed where the bird landed with the child and the other showing that the search party saw where they landed. Simple as that! If those shots existed I would have enjoyed this film but OH NO...things can't be happy in my world.

Next on our list is the first known Russian film Stenka Razin by Vladimir Romashkov.

First off a hearty welcome to Russia in the world of cinema. The Russians join England, France, Australia, and of course USA in cinematic productions. That said...I'm not a fan of this film. Thankfully there were title cards so I could kind of follow along but jesus it took forever to go through the scenes. Especially when the scenes that seemed important went by extremely fast and the first scene, which was a bunch of guys trying to get on a boat, took 2 WHOLE MINUTES. That means a third of the freaking film focused on them getting on a boat. I don't understand that at all. I'm not going to completely hate on the Russians for churning out this crap because it was their first film BUT good god let's hope that they do better in the future.

Last but not least is The Thieving Hand by J. Stuart Blackton.

Yay!! Ending a year with a great film always makes me happy. First of all I could see all of the actor's faces. Then the story was absolutely hilarious! Oh my did I laugh. I can't even articulate how much this film made me smile. My only criticism was the hokey sets BUT I can ignore it for the awesomeness that I just witnessed. This will definitely go into my favorite films of the decade list.

That's actually it for this year. There were a lot of lost films unfortunately (13 listed films with 5 films that I actually watched) so next time we will get into 1909. I can't believe we're almost into the 1910s! It seems like yesterday that I first watched Roundhay Garden Scene. Until next time!