As director Griffith's another classic masterpiece after "The Birth of a Nation", although this film is not as good as "The Birth of a Nation" in terms of box office results, its artistic value is higher than the previous one. This movie has more depth. It was produced and distributed by the American company and was released in the United States on September 5, 1916. The film tells the story of four different historical periods - "Mother and Law" tells the story of a young worker in California in the early 20th century who is framed as a murderer and sentenced to death. And his wife must find out the real murderer and rescue her husband before execution; "The Passion of Jesus" took place in Palestine in 27 AD, Jesus was betrayed by his disciples, tortured and then crucified; " The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew" tells the story of the massacre of Protestants by Catholics in Paris, France in 1572. A pair of young Protestants who were about to get married also suffered misfortune; "The Fall of Babylon" tells the story of the Middle East in 539 BC, the high priest of Babylon, because of his grudge with the prince Balsar, actually opened the city gate when the Persian army came to attack , the ancient kingdom of Babylon has since perished.
In the first story, there is a woman, the wife of a young worker. After her husband is killed, she needs to undertake the task of clearing up her grievances. She is smart and kind. The Jesus in the second story, after being tortured, still insisted on his own ideas, and finally he was resurrected and became the belief of the people. The young couple in the third story, they are tragic, in a helpless period, become victims of reform. The high priest in the fourth story sacrificed the lives of the people of the whole country for his own selfishness. He is selfish and ruthless and has no regard for others. It is hard for people to believe that there are such hateful people in this world. In order to make this film, Griffith invested all his savings. The film took a year and a half to build a set near Los Angeles Avenue, and even the walls of Babylon were the same as the real thing. Like the previous film, the cast of this film is still very large.
Despite being a black and white silent film, the director still uses different filter colors to distinguish the four stories, such as "Mother and Dharma" using amber, and "The Fall of Babylon" using gray-cyan. The director also created many shooting techniques, such as balloon photography, boom photography, etc. At the same time, the director used an unprecedented editing method throughout the film. The four stories were divided into small pieces, which were rearranged and alternated, with only a scene of a mother shaking the cradle as a transition. The background music of the film is also composed of classical orchestral music. However, such an attempt surpassed the era due to the too advanced film concept, and the film box office suffered a slump. However, in terms of artistic exploration, the film became a pioneer of multi-stage narrative films, and the film also received a reputation in film history. The title of "Brilliant Failure".
This film is a step further in the art of the palace, no doubt very successful.
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