Early Griffith 1 (Jay Leyda: Witnessed Years)

In the organizer's words:

Tue 5.11., 20h, introduction: Tom Gunning (online, in English), on the grand piano: Eunice Martins
Early Griffith I
THE SONG OF THE SHIRT D.W. Griffith USA 1908 35 mm silent 8'
THE LONELY VILLA D.W. Griffith USA 1909 16 mm silent 12'
LINES OF WHITE ON A SULLEN SEA D.W. Griffith USA 1909 16 mm silent 19'
A CORNER IN WHEAT D.W. Griffith USA 1909 35 mm silent 14'
THE USURER D.W. Griffith USA 1910 16 mm silent 12'
THE LONEDALE OPERATOR D.W. Griffith USA 1911 16 mm silent 15'
"Early Griffith I" contains a triptych of socially critical films that Leyda's student Charles Musser remembers as a combination often chosen by Leyda: THE SONG OF THE SHIRT, A CORNER IN WHEAT and THE USURER. In all three films, Griffith juxtaposes the poverty and precariousness of the working masses with the greed and decadence of the rich through the parallel montage of two narrative strands. Due to the striking depiction and the punishment that always comes down on the exploiters at the end as a result of force majeure or a mishap, the films seem to be aimed more at moral revulsion than political enlightenment. However, A CORNER IN WHEAT in particular uses clear connections and juxtapositions to point to the larger economic connection between speculation on the New York Stock Exchange, the development of bread prices and growing poverty among the population.
With THE LONELY VILLA, LINES OF WHITE ON A SULLEN SEA and THE LONEDALE OPERATOR, the programme is supplemented by three films from the same production phase in which Griffith also uses parallel montage narratively, but here as an instrument that dramatizes the course of the action, sometimes stretching and sometimes condensing the narrative time.