Today marks the 147th anniversary of the birth of David Griffiths
Godard once said: "The film begins in Griffiths and ends in Abbas";
Chaplin said of Griffiths: "He is a teacher to all of us".
Known as the "father of American cinema", Griffith was a seminal figure who made great contributions to the development of early cinema, taking the most crucial step in the path of cinema becoming an independent art category, "making cinema truly an art", and his contribution to the basic language of cinematic art exceeded anyone in the history of cinema.
At the beginning of the early silent films, the structure was simple, just through the fixed lens, so that the audience could see what was happening in front of the camera. But griffiths later told the story through a variety of wide-angle shots, medium and long-range and close-up shots, he integrated and perfected the language of the film, completely breaking the original staged concept of time and space, giving the lens spiritual power. His narrative strategy influenced the visual arts of almost all subsequent films.
In 1915, David Griffiths created "The Birth of a Nation" and "The Party Is Different", two films that occupy a prominent position in the history of world cinema. In both films, Griffith used "the lens as the basic unit of cinematic language", laying the foundation for cinema as an independent art, marking the formation of cinematic art.
