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Director: D.W. Griffith
Cast: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall
USA, 1915, ’, black and white
Silent
A pivotal moment in film history: after The Birth of a Nation, nothing was the same, not the way audiences watched films, not the way filmmakers created them. D.W. Griffith's jumbo-size saga of the American Civil War expanded the boundaries of storytelling on the screen, conveying a richer, more complicated tale than anyone had seen in a film before. The delicate relationships, the sad passage of time, the spectacular battle scenes all look as fresh and innovative today as they did in 1915. So do Griffith's brilliant actors, most of them--including favorite leading lady Lillian Gish--drawn from his regular stock company. What has become increasingly problematic about the film is Griffith's condescending attitude toward black slaves, and the ringing excitement surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his masterwork. Despite protests, the film sold more tickets than any other film, a record that stood for decades, and American President Woodrow Wilson famously compared it to "history written in lightning."
6 May Sunday, 14.00
13 May Sunday, 17.00
22 June Friday, 19.00
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