D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith
Cineasta estadounidense
D. W. Griffith nació el 22 de enero de 1875 en Grestwood, Oldham County.
Su padre participó en el lado perdedor de la Guerra de Secesión de Estados Unidos.
Cursó estudios en escuelas locales. Autodidacta que trabajó en muchos oficios antes de incursionar en el cine y el teatro.
Se inicia como actor en compañías ambulantes y de cine en el año 1908, cuando empezó a trabajar para la Biograph Film Company. De esta misma compañía llegó a ser director en Nueva York y en California, hasta convertirse en productor independiente en 1913.
En los casi 400 filmes que realizó entre los años 1908 y 1914 cultivó todos los estilos y géneros, mostrando una especial inclinación hacia el melodrama histórico.
El nacimiento de una nación (1915) provocó todo tipo de reacciones. Por un lado, logró que por primera vez se reconociera al cine como arte, pero al mismo tiempo fue criticado dada su abierta y franca visión racista. Reinventó la narración cinematográfica, utilizó un nuevo estilo en el montaje e introdujo nuevas técnicas de producción, que desde entonces son la norma en Hollywood. Hasta entonces, las películas de cine habían sido cortometrajes, producidas, interpretadas y montadas con pocos medios y escasa calidad.
Sus películas se basaban en situaciones dramáticas con un alto nivel técnico, cercano al virtuosismo, y a veces de varias horas de duración.
Ideó algunos de los recursos expresivos como el plano corto, el fundido-encadenado y el flashback.
En 1920, junto con Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks y Mary Pickford, funda la United Artists para producir películas de larga duración al margen del control de los productores y financieros.
Entre las películas que dirigió para esta compañía figuran La culpa ajena (1919), Las dos tormentas (1920), Las dos huerfanitas (1922), La batalla de los sexos (1928) y La melodía del amor (1929), todas mudas excepto la última.
Griffith hizo además dos películas sonoras, Abraham Lincoln (1930) y La contienda (1930), que no tuvieron el éxito de sus películas mudas. La mayoría de sus producciones fueron fracasos comerciales y, poco a poco, ignorado por todos, cayó en el más completo de los olvidos.
D. W. Griffith murió solo en un oscuro hotel del Hollywood Boulevard el día 23 de julio de 1948. Su mejor epitafio lo escribió Orson Welles: «Yo le admiraba, le veneraba, pero él no necesitaba un discípulo. Necesitaba trabajo. Nunca he odiado realmente a Hollywood a no ser por el trato que dispensó a David Wark Griffith. Ninguna ciudad, ninguna profesión ni forma de arte le deben tanto a un solo hombre».
Filmografía
1931 The Struggle
1930 Abraham Lincoln
1929 Lady of the Pavements
1928 Drums of Love
1928 The Battle of the Sexes
1926 The Sorrows of Satan
1925 That Royale Girl
1925 Sally of the Sawdust
1924 Isn't Life Wonderful
1923 The White Rose
1922 One Exciting Night
1922 Orphans of the Storm
1921 Dream Street
1920 The Greatest Question
1920 Way Down East
1920 The Love Flower
1920 The Idol Dancer
1919 Broken Blossoms
1919 The Fall Of Babylon
1919 A Romance of Happy Valley
1919 The Girl Who Stayed at Home
1919 True Heart Susie
1919 Scarlet Days
1918 The Great Love
1918 The Greatest Thing in Life
1918 Hearts of the World
1916 Intolerance
1916 The Good Bad Man
1915 The Birth of a Nation
1915 Fatal Marriage Actor
1914 The Mother and the Law
1914 The Gangsters of New York
1914 The Dishonored Medal
1914 The Avenging Conscience
1914 Home, Sweet Home
1914 His Last Dollar
1914 The Escape
1914 The Battle of the Sexes
1913 Her Mother's Oath
1913 The Wanderer
1913 An Indian's Loyalty
1913 Mirror
1913 Madonna of the Storm
1913 A Misappropriated Turkey
1913 The Mistake
1913 A Misunderstood Boy
1913 The Lady and the Mouse
1913 Just Gold
1913 Love in an Apartment Hotel
1913 The Left-Handed Man
1913 The Little Tease
1913 The Ranchero's Revenge
1913 His Mother's Son
1913 The House of Darkness
1913 The Hero of Little Italy
1913 Pirate Gold
1913 A Modest Hero
1913 Near to Earth
1913 The Mothering Heart
1913 The Perfidy of Mary
1913 Oil and Water
1913 Olaf-An Atom
1913 If We Only Knew
1913 A Welcome Intruder
1913 The Coming of Angelo
1913 A Woman in the Ultimate
1913 The Conscience of Hassan Bey
1913 The Unwelcome Guest
1913 Two Men of the Desert
1913 A Timely Interception
1913 An Adventure in the Autumn Woods
1913 The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
1913 The Yaqui Cur
1913 A Chance Deception
1913 Broken Ways or
1913 Brute Force
1913 The Reformers
1913 The Enemy's Baby
1913 The Sorrowful Shore
1913 Fate
1913 A Girl's Stratagem
1913 So Runs the Way
1913 The Sheriff's Baby
1913 Three Friends
1913 The Tender Hearted Boy
1913 The Telephone Girl and the Lady
1913 Death's Marathon
1913 The Stolen Bride
1913 During the Round-Up
1913 The Stolen Loaf
1913 Drink's Lure
1912 In the Elemental World
1912 In the Aisles of the Wild
1912 The Mender of Nets
1912 My Baby
1912 The Massacre
1912 Man's Lust for Gold
1912 The New York Hat
1912 My Hero
1912 The Narrow Road
1912 In the North Woods
1912 The Informer
1912 The Inner Circle
1912 An Indian Summer
1912 Man's Genesis
1912 A Lodging for the Night
1912 Iola's Promise
1912 The Lesser Evil
1912 Lena and the Geese
1912 The Old Actor
1912 The Chief's Blanket
1912 A Change of Spirit
1912 A Child's Remorse
1912 A Cry for Help
1912 A Beast at Bay
1912 The Burglar's Dilemma
1912 Billy's Stratagem
1912 Brutality
1912 Home Folks
1912 Gold and Glitter
1912 The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch
1912 Heaven Avenges
1912 His Lesson
1912 Fate's Interception
1912 A Feud in the Kentucky Hills
1912 The God Within
1912 For His Son
1912 The Girl and Her Trust
1912 The Baby and the Stork
1912 Root of Evil
1912 Sunbeam
1912 Heredity
1912 Blind Love
1912 With the Enemy's Help
1912 The Punishment
1912 The Painted Lady
1912 When Kings Were the Law
1912 The Female of the Species
1912 Friends
1912 The Eternal Mother
1912 Black Sheep
1912 Just Like a Woman
1912 The Old Bookkeeper
1912 The Sands of Dee
1912 A Sailor's Heart
1912 The Schoolteacher and the Waif
1912 A Siren of Impulse
1912 A Sister's Love
1912 One is Business, the Other Crime
1912 A Pueblo Legend
1912 The One She Loved
1912 An Outcast Among Outcasts
1912 An Unseen Enemy
1912 The Transformation of Mike
1912 A Temporary Truce
1912 Two Daughters of Eve
1912 Under Burning Skies
1912 So Near, Yet So Far
1912 The Spirit Awakened
1912 A Tale of the Wilderness
1912 A String of Pearls
1912 The Switch Tower
1911 The Smile of a Child
1911 The Sorrowful Example
1911 Saved from Himself
1911 The Rose of Kentucky
1911 The Stuff Heroes Are Made Of
1911 The Spanish Gypsy
1911 The Squaw's Love
1911 Sunshine Through the Dark
1911 Out from the Shadow
1911 Paradise Lost
1911 The Old Confectioner's Mistake
1911 A Romany Tragedy
1911 The Revenue Man and the Girl
1911 The Poor Sick Men
1911 The Primal Call
1911 The New Dress
1911 Was He a Coward?
1911 What Shall We Do with Our Old?
1911 The Voice of the Child
1911 The Unveiling or
1911 A Wreath of Orange Blossoms
1911 The White Rose of the Wilds
1911 A Woman Scorned
1911 Swords and Hearts
1911 A Terrible Discovery
1911 The Thief and the Girl
1911 Teaching Dad to Like Her
1911 The Two Sides
1911 The Two Paths
1911 Three Sisters
1911 The Trail of Books
1911 Through Darkened Vales
1911 Her Sacrifice
1911 A Country Cupid
1911 The Crooked Road
1911 The Chief's Daughter
1911 The Broken Cross
1911 Bobby, the Coward
1911 Fate's Turning
1911 Fighting Blood
1911 Dan the Dandy
1911 The Diamond Star
1911 A Decree of Destiny
1911 Fisher Folks
1911 As in a Looking Glass
1911 Conscience
1911 The Blind Princess and the Poet
1911 The Adventures of Billy
1911 Battle
1911 Failure
1911 When a Man Loves
1911 Ruling Passion
1911 The Miser's Heart
1911 The Last Drop of Water
1911 Lily of the Tenements
1911 A Knight of the Road
1911 The Jealous Husband
1911 Italian Blood
1911 Madame Rex
1911 The Making of a Man
1911 The Lonedale Operator
1911 Love in the Hills
1911 The Long Road
1911 Heart Beats of Long Ago
1911 His Trust
1911 His Mother's Scarf
1911 His Trust Fulfilled
1911 How She Triumphed
1911 The Heart of a Savage
1911 His Daughter
1911 Her Awakening
1911 The Italian Barber
1911 In the Days of '49
1911 The Indian Brothers
1910 Effecting a Cure
1910 The Duke's Plan
1910 The Face at the Window
1910 The Englishman and the Girl
1910 Examination Day at School
1910 Faithful
1910 The Cloister's Touch
1910 A Child's Stratagem
1910 The Dancing Girl of Butte
1910 The Converts
1910 The Course of True Love
1910 A Child's Impulse
1910 His Sister-In-Law
1910 His New Lid
1910 His Last Burglary
1910 The Honor of His Family
1910 The House with Closed Shutters
1910 A Flash of Light
1910 Gold is Not All
1910 The Final Settlement
1910 Her Terrible Ordeal
1910 Her Father's Pride
1910 A Gold Necklace
1910 The Golden Supper
1910 The Iconoclast
1910 The Griffith Biographs
1910 An Affair of Hearts
1910 Winning Back His Love
1910 The Girl from Mellons
1910 After Many Years
1910 The Woman from Mellon's
1910 The Broken Doll
1910 Child of the Ghetto
1910 Thou Shalt Not
1910 Ramona
1910 The Call to Arms
1910 The Gold Seekers
1910 A Child's Faith
1910 As the Bells Rang Out!
1910 As It is in Life
1910 An Arcadian Maid tor
1910 The Banker's Daughters
1910 Call
1910 Wilful Peggy
1910 The Lesson
1910 Fugitive
1910 When We Were in Our Teens
1910 Way of the World
1910 A Summer Idyll
1910 White Roses
1910 What the Daisy Said
1910 The Sorrows of the Unfaithful
1910 Smoker
1910 The Song of the Wildwood Flute
1910 A Summer Tragedy
1910 Sunshine Sue
1910 Taming a Husband
1910 A Romance of the Western Hills
1910 The Rocky Road
1910 Simple Charity
1910 Serious Sixteen
1910 Rose O' Salem Town
1910 A Salutary Lesson
1910 A Rich Revenge
1910 Usurer
1910 Up a Tree
1910 Unexpected Help
1910 A Victim of Jealousy
1910 Waiter No. 5
1910 The Tenderfoot's Triumph
1910 The Thread of Destiny
1910 That Chink at Golden Gulch
1910 The Unchanging Sea
1910 Two Little Waifs
1910 The Twisted Trail
1910 The Two Brothers
1910 The Impalement
1910 Man
1910 Love Among the Roses
1910 Little Angels of Luck
1910 The Marked Time-Table
1910 May and December
1910 The Message of the Violin
1910 In Old California
1910 In Life's Cycle
1910 The Last Deal
1910 A Knot in the Plot
1910 In the Border States
1910 In the Season of Buds
1910 The Purgation
1910 On the Reef
1910 An Old Story with a New Ending
1910 The Oath and the Man
1910 A Plain Song
1910 One Night, and Then
1910 Over Silent Paths
1910 A Midnight Cupid
1910 A Mohawk's Way
1910 The Modern Prodigal
1910 The Newlyweds
1910 Never Again
1910 Muggsy Becomes a Hero
1910 Muggsy's First Sweetheart
1909 The Medicine Bottle
1909 The Mended Lute
1909 The Lonely Villa
1909 Love Finds a Way
1909 The Little Teacher
1909 The Maniac Cook
1909 Mamma
1909 Lucky Jim
1909 The Lure of the Gown
1909 The Little Darling
1909 The Note in the Shoe
1909 The Necklace
1909 A New Trick
1909 Oh, Uncle!
1909 The Message
1909 The Mills of the Gods
1909 The Mexican Sweethearts
1909 Mr. Jones' Burglar
1909 Mr. Jones Has a Card Party
1909 The Mountaineer's Honor
1909 Nursing a Viper
1909 His Wife's Visitor
1909 His Wife's Mother
1909 The Honor of Thieves
1909 In a Hempen Bag
1909 In Little Italy
1909 The Hindoo Dagger
1909 Her First Biscuits
1909 His Ward's Love
1909 His Duty
1909 His Lost Love
1909 Lines of White on a Sullen Sea
1909 The Joneses Have Amateur Theatricals
1909 Jones and the Lady Book Agent
1909 Lady Helen's Escapade
1909 The Light That Came
1909 In the Watches of the Night
1909 The Indian Runner's Romance
1909 In the Window Recess
1909 Jones and His New Neighbors
1909 Jealousy and the Man
1909 Jilt
1909 The Golden Louis
1909 To Save Her Soul
1909 Through the Breakers
1909 Tragic Love
1909 The Awakening
1909 A Change of Heart
1909 Tender Hearts
1909 A Sweet Revenge
1909 Those Boys!
1909 They Would Elope
1909 Those Awful Hats
1909 A Strange Meeting
1909 1776, or The Hessian Renegades
1909 With Her Card
1909 Leather Stocking
1909 Wanted, a Child
1909 In Old Kentucky
1909 Two Women and a Man
1909 A Midnight Adventure
1909 The Winning Coat
1909 A Wreath in Time
1909 A Terrible Quarrel
1909 One Busy Hour
1909 The Red Man's View
1909 The Prussian Spy
1909 The Renunciation
1909 The Restoration
1909 Resurrection
1909 The Peachbasket Hat
1909 One Touch of Nature
1909 Pranks
1909 The Open Gate
1909 The Politician's Love Story
1909 A Sound Sleeper
1909 The Seventh Day
1909 The Sealed Room
1909 Slave
1909 The Son's Return
1909 The Road to the Heart
1909 The Roue's Heart
1909 A Rude Hostess
1909 Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade
1909 A Rural Elopement
1909 The Salvation Army Lass
1909 Pippa Passes
1909 The Brahma Diamond
1909 The Broken Locket
1909 The Better Way
1909 A Baby's Shoe
1909 At the Altar
1909 Choosing a Husband
1909 Comata, the Sioux
1909 A Burglar's Mistake
1909 The Children's Friend
1909 The Cardinal's Conspiracy
1909 Confidence
1909 And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
1909 Sweet and Twenty
1909 Test
1909 Suicide Club
1909 Sacrifice
1909 The Girls and Daddy
1909 The Fascinating Mrs. Francis
1909 A Fool's Revenge
1909 A Fair Exchange
1909 The Expiation
1909 The Faded Lilies
1909 The Gibson Goddess
1909 Getting Even
1909 Fools of Fate
1909 The Friend of the Family
1909 The French Duel
1909 A Convict's Sacrifice
1909 The Curtain Pole
1909 The Criminal Hypnotist
1909 The Death Disc
1909 The Day After
1909 The Deception
1909 The Cord of Life
1909 The Cricket on the Hearth
1909 A Corner in Wheat
1909 The Country Doctor
1909 The Eavesdropper
1909 A Drunkard's Reformation
1908 The Black Viper
1908 A Calamitous Elopement
1908 The Call of the Wild
1908 The Bandit's Waterloo
1908 Betrayed by a Handprint
1908 Behind the Scenes
1908 Balked at the Altar
1908 The Man and the Woman
1908 Cupid's Pranks Actor
1908 The Fatal Hour
1908 Caught by Wireless Actor
1908 The Christmas Burglars
1908 The Clubman and the Tramp
1908 Concealing a Burglar
1908 Devil
1908 Romance of a Jewess
1908 The Vaquero's Vow
1908 Outpost in Malaya
1908 The Zulu's Heart
1908 Where the Breakers Roar
1908 The Yellow Peril Actor
1908 An Awful Moment
1908 Woman's Way
1908 At the French Ball Actor
1908 The Valet's Wife
1908 The Test of Friendship
1908 The Taming of the Shrew
1908 The Tavern Keeper's Daughter
1908 The Stolen Jewels
1908 The Pirate's Gold
1908 Old Isaacs, the Pawnbroker
1908 Professional Jealousy Actor
1908 The Princess in the Vase Actor
1908 Money Mad
1908 Mrs. Jones Entertains
1908 Mr. Jones at the Ball
1908 Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court
1908 A Smoked Husband
1908 The Sculptor's Nightmare Actor
1908 The Song of the Shirt
1908 The Reckoning
1908 The Red Girl
1908 Rescued from an Eagle's Nest Actor
1908 The Red Man and the Child
1908 Classmates Actor
1908 For Love of Gold
1908 For a Wife's Honor
1908 The Greaser's Gauntlet
1908 The Girl and the Outlaw
1908 Falsely Accused! Actor
1908 The Feud and the Turkey
1908 A Famous Escape Actor
1908 Father Gets in the Game
1908 The Man in the Box Actor
1908 The Ingrate
1908 Hulda's Lovers Actor
1908 The Invisible Fluid Actor
1908 The King's Messenger Actor
1908 The Heart of O'yama
1908 Her First Adventure Actor
1908 The Helping Hand
