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Eloquent Gestures
The Transformation of Performance Style in the Griffith Biograph Films
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Book Presentation:
Between 1908 and 1913, D. W. Griffith played a key role in the reformulating of film's narrative techniques, thus contributing to the creation of what we now think of as the classical Hollywood cinema. This book is the only extensive treatment of a critical period in the history of film acting: the emergence of the realistic "verisimilar" style in Griffith's biograph films. Roberta Pearson shows how Griffith gradually abandoned the deliberately affected "histrionic" acting style derived from the nineteenth-century stage. No longer did actors mime distress by raising their arms to heaven or clutching their heads—a subtle facial expression, a slight change in posture would convey a character's extreme emotions instead.
Pearson makes detailed comparisons of certain Biograph films and brings a freshness to her analysis by closely examining contemporary journalistic writing, acting manuals, and the recollections of actors of the time. Her work is important for anyone interested in early cinema and performance, and it will enliven the study of American cultural history and mass communications.
Between 1908 and 1913, D. W. Griffith played a key role in the reformulating of film's narrative techniques, thus contributing to the creation of what we now think of as the classical Hollywood cinema. This book is the only extensive treatment of a critic
About the Author:
Roberta E. Pearson is Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is co-editor of The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and his Media (1991) and co-author of a forthcoming book dealing with the cultural and social contexts of the Vitagraph Studio's high-art moving pictures.
Press Reviews:
"Pearson writes beautifully, clearly, and entertainingly (with a touch of sardonic sarcasm here and there). This is the single best work centering on performance in film that I have read."—Thomas Gunning, author of D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film
See the publisher website: University of California Press
See the complete filmography of David W. Griffith on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Reframing Culture (2014)
The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films
by William Uricchio and Roberta E. Pearson
Subject: Silent Cinema
> On a related topic:
Thinking in Pictures (2022)
Dramatic Structure in D. W. Griffith's Biograph Films
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film (1993)
The Early Years at Biograph
by Tom Gunning
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
The Man Who Invented Hollywood (1972)
The Autobiography of D.W. Griffith
Subject: Director > David W. Griffith
Cinema's Original Sin (2022)
D. W. Griffith, American Racism, and the Rise of Film Culture
by Paul McEwan
Subject: One Film > The Birth of a Nation
D. W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation (2022)
Art, Culture and Ethics in Black and White
Dir. Jenny Barrett, Douglas Field and Ian Scott
Subject: One Film > The Birth of a Nation
Birth of a Nation (2019)
The Cinematic Past in the Present
Dir. Michael T. Martin
Subject: One Film > The Birth of a Nation
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