Monument to a pioneer

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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DW Griffiths was a cinematic pioneer, the first director to move the camera out of the stalls of an imaginary theatre and to intercut close-ups for effect.

And he certainly had a taste for the monumental, as the two best-known works in this five-film set testify: The Birth Of A Nation and Intolerance are fascinating, highly creative films even if their silent length is burdensome and the politics often dodgy in the extreme.

Delicate melodramas such as Broken Blossoms and Way Down East have lasted much better, as has Griffiths's first talkie, Abraham Lincoln. Beautifully-presented set with interesting clutch of extras.

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