[[tt0009150]]

__Hearts of the World __(D.W. Griffith, March 1918) camera G.W. Bitzer, with Robert Harron, Lilian and Dorothy Gish, Josephine Crowell, George Siegmann and Kate Bruce for D.W. Griffith Productions / Famous Players-Lasky Corporation ¹

‘We beg for your indulgence for this short prologue. It has no possible interest, save to vouch for the rather unusual event of an American producer being allowed to take pictures on an actual battlefield. D.W. Griffith sets up his camera in the British front line trench at Cambrin, fifty yards from the enemy lines.’ While everyone walks stooping, Griffith walks upright through the trench. ‘Interested look upwards is directed towards the passing shells.’ We come to a point where a Pathé camera is set up with an armycameraman. ‘At No. 10 Downing Street, David Lloyd George, England’s Prime Minister, whishing D.W. Griffith success for his picture.’ Lloyd George shakes Griffith’s hand. Apologies and thanks. The picture follows.

‘The story of a village. An old fashioned play with a new fashioned theme

God help the nation that begins another war of conquest or meddling! Brass bands and clanging sabers make very fine music, but let us remember there is another side of war.’ ‘After all, does war ever settle any question? The South was ruined – thousands of lives sacrified – by the Civil War; yet did it really settle the Black and White problem in this country.

‘Peaceful days in 1912. The village at the time of spring, where people love and hate, cry and laugh, sin and are forgiven – even as you and I.’ It’s spring and in a left-sided pan we see children playing on a lawn and families and couples sitting in the grass. ‘The market’ is very busy. Carts pass by. We see ‘The double house in which live the two American Families on the Rue de la Paix.’ ‘We find the home brightened by pleasant news. The daughter (the Girl) is returning from a long visit to an aunt in Rheims.’ (the gardens are separated from the street by a wall with a separate gate with a door for each house. Between the gardens is a wall with a gate and a door). When she returns home, she kisses her grandfather and showers her mother with kisses.

‘The Boy, son of an American painter, burnt with the genius denied by the father, has just returned from Paris. The painter is a grumpy person and ‘the fussy (over-concerned) little mother sometimes thinks herself neglected.’ Mother offers her son coffee on a silver platter, but the boy is not in it interested and out of anger she pushes him. The boy wants to make up for it and gives her kisses. And she kisses him in turn.

The Girl hoes in the garden and plays with young geese, ‘Three harmles little goslings.’ She chases a young goose that has run away through the gate, ‘The wanderer’, and comes chasing the gosling through the garden gate in the neighbor’s garden, where the Boy is writing. They try to catch the gosling together and the Boy looks tenderly at the Girl who sweetly tries to lure the gosling. Eventually the Boy gets hold of the goose and gives it to the Girl who returns home with it. When she arrives at her bedroom, which is under the hood, she prays that the boy will love her forever. ‘One of the many prayers: Please make me so nice and good that the Boy will love me for ever and ever.’ ‘Time brings to the Girl interest in fashions and other little nets to catch love, after the manner of the world.’ The girl looks at a fashion magazine and dresses fashionably while grandpa and mother are winding up a knot of wool.

‘The littlest one of the Boy’s three brothers is inclined to hero-worship’ while the Boy reads his latest manuscript to his brother. ‘This little love affair between them has been going on about five years.’ The little boy looks at his older brother in adoration. ‘With great enthusiasm the Boy reads from his latest manuscript’ to his parents and brother.’ His parents are moved. Meanwhile, the little boy polishes his brother’s shoe and sits on it, holding his brother’s leg. At that moment the Girl and her mother enter. The Boy gives the manuscript to the girl, who presses it to her heart. Meanwhile, the Boy’s three brothers play together. ‘Afternoon. She reads his verse of love – deathless, unending’ (the love expressed in the poem is eternal and lasts forever. However, deathless at the brink of war!?). The girl is sitting in the garden, with a flower in her hand, reading (00:13:03) and she also kisses the flower (00:13:35). The boy sees her holding the flower in a classic eyeball point of view shot (00:13:08). And his gaze takes in the girl in, in an up and down pan, from head to toe (00:13:08-00:13:29), following her body shape.

‘In the street ‘A visiting street singer’s imitation of a late success from Paris.’ She accompanies herself on the mandolin and raises money with the tambourine. Monsieur Cuckoo argues with his friend the village carpenter on the correct method laying sod.’ The little disturber makes an impression’ on Mr Cuckoo. The carpenter gives her a penny from Cuckoo’s wallet. During his walk, the Boy meets the street singer, who flirts intensively with him. He gives her a penny, but a little later she gives the penny back to him (00:15:52). It is striking that Lilian Gish, the Girl, appears a bit frumpy at the beginning of the film, while her sister Dorothy, The Little Disturber, looks natural, strikingly modern and attractive (00:15:28, 00:16:18). And when The Little Disturber meets Cuckoo again, she flirts with him too. ‘Having so far strangely escaped flatterers, she now seems down for the count.’ (Attractive as she is, she has managed to hold off suitors so far, but now she is felled like a boxer: down while the count is to ten.) ‘Von Strohm – ‘tourist’ - sometimes serving as a finger to the Mailed Fist. (the finger, a small part of The Mailed (chain mailed) Fist, which was a widely used Allied propaganda phrase during WW I.) Von Strohm pretends to be a tourist, but is part of the threatening military violence. ‘The Shadow. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, representing War’s ideal of all races and ages, the ruling of weaker nations and people by the Power of Might.’ (A threatening shadow over humanity: Emperor Wilhelm as the representative of the tyranny of war using brutal force.’). We see Emperor Wilhelm, in an abstracted studio shot, surrounded by his soldiers.

In a pub we see ‘A deaf and blind musician, playing (on his violin) melodies remembered from his youth.’ The waitress gives him a glass of wine. Von Strohm enters the inn, whispers something in the landlady’s ear and gives her money, which she hides under her apron. She is an informant for the Germans.

‘Twilight minstrelsy.’ The little Disturber walks across the street with two men and plays music that the Girl hears inside (00:18:38). She then walks outside and, as the wind blows through her clothes, looks at the musicians passing by who sing: ‘When all the world is young, lad, And all the woods are green…’ The Girl stands lost in thought at the door in the wall that separates the two houses. On the other side of the door is The Boy. ‘The wall is between’ them.’ Upstairs, The Boy’s brothers are about to go to bed. They look into the garden through the slats of the shutters, in their pajamas. The musicians pass by. The Boy is leaning against the door. It’s like Romeo and Juliet. The Boy opens the door and approaches the Girl and declares his love for her, whereupon they fall into each other’s arms. But with the brothers there is ‘Jealousy’. They look down through the slats of the shutters and see the two cuddling in the garden. They throw open the shutters and close them again with a bang. The Girl hears this, who immediately looks up (acoustic coupling 00:20:52). The Boy reassures her.

‘Von Strohm’ walks through the street and is ‘very interested in village architecture and foundations.’ He comes to the garden gate behind which he sees the Girl sitting and looks at her foundation, her ankles (00:21:56). He tries to have a chat but when she sees him she slams the gate in his face. Von Strohm takes a flower from his buttonhole (00:22:17), inserts it into a peephole in the door and pushes the flower with his rot through the hole.

‘Perseverance and perfume.’ Meanwhile, the street singer walks down the street past the Boy’s family garden. She perfumes her neck both sides and throws the rest of the perfume into her décolleté. It burns very brightly for a moment. But then the Boy comes out of the garden gate. She shakes his hand and wants to take him along. But the Boy resists. ‘Just one little walk – so – so you can tell me why you don’t like me.’ Dorothy Gish is very seductive (00:23:27). She looks seductive, asks for a kiss and when he doesn’t want to, she throws her arms around his neck and presses herself against him. The Boy pulls her arms away, he doesn’t want it. But she doesn’t give in, jumps on him and kisses him, whereupon he throws his arms around her and kisses her deeply. From a distance the Girl sees this happening. The Boy now flies into a rage, enters through the garden door and leaves the singer in the street, bewildered and indignant. The Girl is devastated by the sight she saw and collapses in the corner of her room. ‘The end of the world.’ She gives the Boy back his love poems the next time he visits. It’s over and he hates it and tries to talk to her and starts crying. And then she takes the letters back, she forgives him and he kisses her hand. He’ll never do it again. ‘Only you – forever and ever.’ ‘For ever and ever.’

The Boy and the Girl get engaged. At the engagement party, the Boy’s brothers congratulate the Girl and the Boy, while the group clinks glasses in the background. The littlest brother still has some difficulty with it, although the tension between him and the Girl eases and they hug each other. Meanwhile, Mr. Cuckoo stalks the street singer. ‘Too persistent.’ When she comes out he is at the door and she doesn’t like that. She hits and kicks him, ‘Even her blows are caresses.’ The singer walks past the garden gate and sees the guests at the engagement party (eyeball point of view shot at 00:29:15). She hits her tambourine. The boy comes out in a dress suit and top hat and she wants to approach him again. The girl prevents this, but is spat on by the singer in response. As they walk away in shock, the singer waves her fist. ‘Afterwards – If we cant get what we want, let’s want what we can get.’ She meets Cuckoo again and accepts him, albeit her second choice, as a boyfriend.

‘The German Militarists plan the dastartly blow against France and civilization.’ We see how officers walk around the German headquarters, making their plans. Meanwhile, the Girl is sewing her bridal clothes. ‘With white thread and whiter dreams she works on her wedding clothes.’ She shows her mother the progress and gives her kisses. The relational crosscut at 00:30:57 contrasts evil warmongering with peaceful domesticity. The Boy comes in and the Girl hides her wedding sewing from him. He has received a letter (00:32:17) informing him that he has received the Prix Goncourt for his book ‘Summer Seas’. The letter is dated 30-7-1914 (while the Great War broke out 28-7-1914). The Boy and the Girl are wildly excited. Meanwhile, the town crier passes by and beats his drum. ‘The village Crier, butt of all jests, at last becomes important.’ The Boy and the Girl hear the noise and look in the direction it comes from (acoustic coupling at 00:32:56). ‘I will see what it’s all about.’ The boy walks outside and sees the announcer reading the message that war has broken out. ‘War!’ And a plaque proclaiming ‘General Mobilization of the Land and Naval Forces’ is posted. ‘The three musketeers (Cuckoo, the carpenter and the Boy) read the news together.’ When the boy returns, the cheerful atmosphere turns into concern: ‘It means War!’ ‘

The world outside. In the English House of Parliament. August 3rd, 1914, at three o’clock. Sir Edward Gray asks the Commons if it be their will to support France and protect the neutrality of Belgium.’ That’s what all deputies want. ‘Yes! Yes!’ ‘The French Chamber of Deputies, August 4th, 1914, at three o’clock. René Viviani, Prime Minister of France: We fight only to defend Liberty! We have been without reproach – we will be without fear!’_ ‘_On The deputies respond enthusiastically with ‘Vive la France!’ It seems like they have already won. ‘August 4, 10:55 P.M. at Downing Street, awaiting Germany’s answer to Great Britain’s ultimatum. Asquith, Lloyd George, Gray and Winston Churchill’ await the German response to their ultimatum. ‘Germany has five more minutes to promise to withdraw her troops – or war!’ ‘At the Foreign Office.’ Everyone is waiting anxiously and the clock is ticking. But the Germans let the ultimatum demand that they withdraw their troops expire and ‘It is war!’

‘Again in the village.’ ‘Though an American citizen, believing the country that is good enough to live in is good enough to fight for, he makes his farewells and offers his life to France.’ In uniform, he says goodbye to his parents and brothers. His little brother, who adores him, has the most difficulty with it and gives the Boy a toy gun. They hug each other intimately and salute each other, after which the little boy has to be pulled away from his brother. Monsieur Cuckoo says goodbye to the singer and gives her a flower (00:39:11) that she treats roughly and that loses most of its petals. ‘Tears are shed – even for Monsieur Cuckoo.’ He bids a tender farewell to the singer, who is crying. ‘Cuckoo says: ‘I’ll be back in three weeks, with a lock of hair, all for you – the Kaiser’s mustache!’ And he gives her his watch for safekeeping. ‘The Girl’s sad heart masked with smiles, as were millions of others in troubled France.’ The Boy says goodbye to the Girl, they give each other their photos’s (extreme close-up at 00:40:40 and 00:40:49) and kiss. ‘Forever and ever.’ The folder with the girl’s photo also contains an image of the American flag.

‘The sons of France go to defend their homes.’ The soldiers march through the streets, waved goodbye by the population. From 00:41:48 we follow the leading soldier and the passing soldiers with parallel tracking shots. The soldiers have flowers in their gun barrels. In a tracking shot we follow the Girl who walks along with the marching Boy (00:42:10). And the singer walks up with Cuckoo and kisses him (00:42:15). In essence, we are already dealing with an Entfesselte Kamera (years before Karl Freund used it). And the carpenter has also joined the troops (00:42:26). ‘The wedding clothes.’ The Girl stores ‘her wedding dress’ in a blanket chest, a dream wedding is not possible for the time being. ‘In the little room where she had dreamed so many dreams, she puts her sweetest one away.’ ‘The Boy’s regiment is placed in a bulwark of trenches directly outside his own village.’_ ‘_The French swear to hold the trench defending the village until death.’ The soldiers are digging hard. ‘The enemy hordes are massing for the attack.’ An entire army passes by. ‘The French artillery’ passes on the horizon in a frighteningly narrow vertical mask, creating an elongated 5:1 aspect ratio (00:44:19).

‘At home the Boys letters assure them the village is safe.’ We see how letters are read at the home of the Girl and at the home of the Boy’s parents and brothers. But the Gendarme warns the villagers to evacuate.’ The Girl shows the letter, but the Gendarme sticks to his call. ‘Danger? Impossible! The French line can never be broken’ says grandfather. And the Boy’s parents don’t want to leave either. ‘The bombing trying the souls of the men.’ We see them sheltering in the trenches while casualties fall and Germans roam the battlefield. ‘War’s old song of hate.’ The German hordes attack and overtake the French in the trenches. The Boy fights bravely, impales Germans with his bayonet and beats them down with his rifle butt. Hand-to-hand fighting takes place. ‘The French are ordered to retreat’ as grenades hit around them.

‘The great retreat.’ There is a massive, somewhat chaotic retreating movement. In an oppressive image surrounded by horizontal masks with a 2:1 aspect ratio (00:46:57) we survey the battlefield. Masses of ’s riders ride through the field. ‘Into the ranks again!’ Columns are forming again from the chaos. The Germans take ‘the very last trench outside the village.’ ‘The Boy, brokenhearted, knowing that retreat has doomed his loved ones in the village.’ In mental point of view he sees ‘the Girl’ in a white nightgown with lace, like an angel, desperately praying (00:48:22). The Boy is in crisis of conscience because he cannot protect the Girl from the Huns. The girl lies down in bed, but cannot sleep and prays. ‘The German artillery moves to bombard the village.’ We see the German troops moving in column along a country road. ‘The very day set as their wedding day brings the last warning.’ The villagers are talking agitatedly and the gendarme comes to the girl’s family to repeat his call to leave. ‘War’s gift to the common people.’ The population stands on the village square, ready to leave. While the population is leaving on foot and by horse and cart, the shelling is already starting. The families of the Boy and the Girl are also leaving. The girl takes her wedding dress from the blanket chest and wants to take it with her. On the street, carts are loaded with household goods. Grandpa can’t say goodbye to the house and the Girl has to talk to him. Eventually she manages to guide him outside, but the cart has already left. In the confusion, their car drives away before they can get in. The girl tells Grandpa to wait in front of the house and runs to the cart that is further away. The Boy’s father stops grandfather, who wants to return home. And then a grenade hits, ripping apart the Girl’s grandfather and knocking the Boy’s mother and ‘The Boy’s father’ to the ground. Meanwhile, the exodus continues.

In ‘the sheltered inn’ the musician continues to play, but the landlady hides behind a barrel. ‘An humble member of the great band, that includes some of the world’s best citizens, making profit out of the war.’ The corrupt landlady takes a telephone from a cupboard and calls a German liaison officer in the trench and communicates the location of targets. Citizens go into a cellar via a staircase to take shelter. ‘In this massacre of innocents, the Girl’s mother is sorely stricken.’ She falls back limp in the basement. The girl walks around confused, with her wedding dress in her hands. ‘Meanwhile, the French, including the Boy, make another heroic effort’ from the trenches, resulting in many deaths. In a backward tracking shot we see the troops running past the obstacles (00:53:28). The Girl is led into the hiding place by a soldier with a heavy hand. There she gives the wedding dress to a woman with child, who is suffering from the cold in her underwear. And then she discovers her injured mother in the hiding place. Grenades hit, the village is on fire and there is great chaos. The village population flees in blind panic. The girl’s mother dies in the shelter and a grenade hits the pond, while the swans swim quietly with their young. The relational cross-cut at 00:55:02 juxtaposes the serene tranquility of the swans and the chaotic destruction from the impacts. As the basement empties, the girl tries to wake her mother, but eventually realizes, to her horror, that her mother is dead. From 00:55:23 Lilian Gish shows a whole range of emotions: loving kisses, calling to wake up mother and then in desperate sorrow over her death. A soldier takes the Girl, again with some force, out of the hiding place, where she has to leave her dead mother behind: ‘Let the dead past bury its dead!’ That is only just in time, because immediately afterwards a grenade hits the stairs of the hiding place.

‘At night’ the fighting around the trenches continues, while the Girl walks around in a daze through the ruins of the buildings. ‘The mind of the simple soul broken by shell and terror – sweet bells jangled, out of tune.’ ‘Under the rising moon’, the deadly tired French soldiers emerge from the trench. The Boy collapses from exhaustion and is left behind by his mates. ‘The desperate onslaught turns the battle from the village.’ Once again we see an elongated horizontal shot of the battlefield due to masking. The Germans are stormed in their trench by the French. Wounded French soldiers walk through the village. ‘The girl is told by a wounded soldier / neighbor where the Boy’s company is fighting.’ She looks straight into the camera with a defeated look (00:58:35), pressing her wedding dress against her and thus making emotional contact with the audience. This initiates the search for the boy.

‘The Boy struggles back toward home.’ ‘This was to have been their wedding day, so through a befogged and dizzy path, she goes to find the bridegroom.’ She stands up, holding her wedding dress in front of her. ‘The Bridegroom’ tries to get up, but falls back down. In a dramatic shot, iconic for this film, (00:59:32) she passes through the deserted, smoking landscape with debris from the battle, prays at a roadside chapel and looks at a dead soldier on the side of the road. She still drags her wedding dress with her and moves from far away to extremely close (00:59:32 - 01:00:18). She continues her journey across the battlefield and finds the boy lying in the field. She kneels next to him and puts the wedding dress over her shoulder and rests her head on his chest (01:00:43 – 01:01:38). ‘And so they spend their bridal night.’

The next morning the Girl wakes up. The Boy is still unresponsive. She goes looking for help. Meanwhile, Red Cross soldiers pass by, taking victims from the battlefield. A Red Cross soldier quickly determines that the boy is no longer alive and continues walking. But his buddy listens to his breathing and concludes that the Boy is still alive. He calls his colleague back and together they try to awaken life signs in him. ‘The haloed Crimson Cross.’ They place the Boy on a stretcher and take him away.

‘The French success is short-lived before the never-ending flood.’ A horde of German soldiers storms across the battlefield and the French are slaughtered in their trenches. ‘The refugees seek shelter at the Inn.’ A little later the German army marches into the village in a column. The women hide in the inn, but the German soldiers enter there too. A German officer pays the landlady, who passed on information by telephone, for her contribution to the fight. The girl is shocked by this collaboration and faints. The singer sleeps in a corner. ‘The Struggle of Civilization.’ ‘The local headquarters of the German army of occupation.’ Senior officers consult with each other at headquarters. ‘Though some portions escaped damage, most of the town (village) is destroyed.’ In a right-sided pan we see that most of the village has been reduced to rubble (01:05:21). ‘The Boy’s family takes refuge in a distant part of the village.’ ‘Distracted atoms of humanity – seeking shelter in hole and corner, cellar and crypt.’ In an overview shot we see them sheltering under great vaults. Women comb their hair and pray__. __‘The Boy’s eldest brother puts at shoveling coal and his mother at domestic work.’ In ‘The washing room at the Inn’ lies the Girl who is given sips of drink from a spoon by ‘the Little Disturber’. ‘The Girl, cared for by a strange companion (the singer), slowly gropes back to sanity and strength.’ She has to think back (mental POV 01:07:15) how she lay with the Boy on the battlefield.

‘Our musketeers, in a new French uniform but an old service, placed where they are sure to do their best – directly opposite their own village.’ Cuckoo writes a love letter and the carpenter mends his socks. The shelter in the trench is called ‘Hotel Richelieu’. ‘The hospital returns a familiar face.’ The recovered boy appears in the trench, and is kissed deeply by his buddies Cuckoo and the carpenter.

In the laundry room of the inn, the ‘Little Disturber’ sees the photo of the boy, whom she also likes (close-up 01:09:26), something she resists. The photo belongs to the Girl and she accepts her behaviour of her competitor with some reluctance. But the little Disturber has Cuckoo as a boyfriend and shows the Girl his watch, although Cuckoo actually doesn’t stir anything in her. This scene once again shows what a spontaneous comedienne Dorothy Gish is (01:09:17 - 01:10:30). The Girl takes the photo from the shelf and puts it in her cleavage. The German soldiers ask the ‘Little Disturber’ to provide beer and play with their hand grenades: ‘Unscrew the little cap and it’s goodbye forever!’ and show to the singer how such a hand grenade explodes. At the end of the film she will drastically influence the outcome of this story with a hand grenade (01:51:22).

‘Von Strohm who, no longer in active service, now is a member of the Intelligence Department’ of the German Army, arrives at the inn by automobile. Inside we see Erich (Von) Stroheim from 01:11:43 to 01:12:03. The singer is treated rudely by Von Strohm and she wants to lash out at him, but controls herself. ‘The Girl is put to work in the field by the War, the Taskmaster.’ She has to put a basket of potatoes on a cart, but she is unable to do so. The German soldier stands completely passively watching the Girl’s failure. ‘Refusal or inability to perform their assigned tasks subject them to whipping or other Punishments.’ When the Girl cannot lift the heavy basket of potatoes onto the cart, the German flogs her, until bleeding and very aggressively, with his whip (01:12:56 - 01:13:12), yanks her up and throws her away. ‘An oldfashioned German (officer) quotes: ‘Justice is the only Right!’ But ‘Von Strohm, the Militarist corrects him: ‘Might alone makes right!’ Power determines who has the right on his side’. Von Strohm is followed by a winking Erich (Von) Stroheim. The beaten Girl collapses in the laundry room.

‘The Allies with fire and flame and souls of men win back inch by inch the sacred soil of France, righting her wrongs.’ We see a long column of American soldiers marching past. They are applauded by the population. And ‘the French’, including their cannons, also pass by destroyed houses, On the battlefield, soldiers sit in trenches and grenades explode. ‘Great Britain’s steel bulldogs bark their defiant protest’ and cause massive impacts. The Boy and his buddy shoot hand grenades at the enemy with their guns. Zeppelin’s with observers hang above the battlefield. ‘The eyes of the Allies.’ ‘Lloyd George’s answer: ‘I will put them wheel to wheel (the cannons side by side close together) until we pound Democracy’s truth home!’ (until the enemy is forced to accept the principles of democracy). Under the leadership of the Boy, the French chase the Germans, who hold their hands up, from a trench. ___‘_The French bring back prisoners of war.’ ‘The Boy, interpreting for the prisoners, hears news from his loved ones.’ ‘In the dugout The Boy tells the news of the village’ to his mates, including Cuckoo.’ ‘Also battling!’ The singer is in the inn ‘also fighting.’ She cries and dries her tears with a tablecloth. The corrupt landlady admonishes her and another servant also rails against her. But the singer doesn’t accept that and she gets into a fight with her and chases her into the kitchen with a frying pan. ‘Imitating his hero.’ In the basement room, the little brother walks around the room with a book and an Alpino cap, imitating the Boy.’ The boy’s mother, who is doing the laundry, has an attack of chest pain and cramps.

‘The rumor spreads that the French are massing for a great attack.’ The ‘Little Disturber’ tells this to the Girl and in the sewing room the news spreads very quickly. The Girl takes the Boy’s photo out of her cleavage. Close-up and eyeball POV 01:19:51). She hugs the photo and gives it kisses. ‘My love, my dead love, they are coming to save us. Don’t you hear - don’t you hear?’ The Girl again looks dreamily straight into the camera (01:20:14 - 01:20:23) and thus breaks the fourth wall in a sense. She seems to be seeking support from the public. But then in her despair she turns to prayer and seeks support from God. The relational cross-cut at 01:20:38 makes the connection between the girl and the boy who, in the trench, in turn looks at and kisses the girl’s photo. He thinks (in mental point of view at 01:20:49) how he met the girl in the garden in happier times. The sequences of the boy and the girl connect the two by their similarity: they both look at the photo of each other and kiss it.

‘Von Strohm and friends, with the aid of entertainers, demonstrate the hardship of trench life for the higher officers.’ The high-ranking German officers are amused in their lodgings by lascivious dancers. In a backwards rider we follow a pirouetting dancer (01:21:51). Von Strohm is having a great time with a showgirl. ‘Life’s Contrasts!’ In contrast with the party we now cut to the basement floor, where the boy’s mother lies on her deathbed. The children kiss her while she encourages them, after which she dies. ‘The mother’s last words: Be brave, my boys, be brave!’ The little boy says crying goodbye to his mother, in close-up (01:22:47). In such way in a relational cross-cut at 01:22:02, egocentric pernicious lust is contrasted with altruistic sublime virtue. ‘The boys, unwilling to suffer the profanation of their mother’s memory at the hands of the Masters of War … themselves perform a sacred service.’ They decide to dig a grave in the basement floor themselves. ‘No requiem – save the ever-sounding guns.’ And while the guns fire they lay their mother in the grave. ‘No prayers – save childish tears.’ ‘The sergeant, now promoted, glimpses real ‘Kultur.’ He takes off his helmet and is offered a cigarette, after which he can join the party. Meanwhile, Von Strohm and his officers continue their party and one of the dancers crawls into the bunk bed and kisses (Erich) Von Stroheim. The other officers also enjoy the dancers who curl around them.

The Girl sees the boy’s brothers walking with a wheelbarrow. They run towards her and she holds all three in her arms and hugs them. And she comforts the littlest brother in an intimate, heavily vignette shot (01:25:45). ‘After daring to bring them a little food – and much love.’ She hugs the little boy ‘after daring to bring them some food – and a lot of love.’ ‘Von Strohm visits the main line on a tour of inspection.’ He arrives by car together with a number of officers at the lines fortified with trenches. And in the trench he kisses an officer (relational cross-cut: both kiss. The Girl kisses the little brother out of love at 01:26:12 and Von Strohm kisses the officer at 01:26:20 to achieve his despicable military goals, which are depicted immediately afterwards in the form of exploding grenades).

The Boy meanwhile goes on a dangerous mission. ‘Under the cover of dark and rain, the Boy reaches the enemies’ lines.’ Disguised as a German soldier ‘he crawls in the dark and while it is raining through no man’s land to the enemy line and ends up in a German trench.’ He bluffs his way past the soldiers: ‘An Euren posting, verdammte Schweine! Back to your posts, swine! But the officers (including Von Strohm) are not so gullible.’ ‘While the Boy walks through the German trench while saluting in the driving rain ‘The lieutenant goes to investigate.’ The Germans chase the Boy and try to overpower him. ‘The Boy trapped.’ The Boy is caught by two German soldiers.’ A fight develops, in which the Boy manages to knock down the Germans, after which he manages to climb out of the trench and hides in a bomb crater full of water in no man’s land. ‘They (the Germans) accept the report that the visitor has been killed in the back areas. The image of the Boy lying in the hole is linked by a relational cross-cut at 01:28:59 to an image of the Girl lying in a similar embryonic position in her warm bed and looking at the photo of her fiancé (both lying in embryonic position, but in completely different circumstances). ‘After two days and nights in a shell-hole inside the hostile lines he gives the awaited signals (with a flare).’ In a relational cross-cut (at 01:29:33) we see that the Girl in the kitchen of the inn also causes light by lighting an oil lamp (both cause light, which emphasizes their bond). The Girl cuts off meat: ‘Food for the children.’

‘Von Strohm, his mess closed, comes to the Inn.’ The front door is closed, but the soldier accompanying him says: ‘Try the back door, sir.’ He goes in through the back door and finds the Girl there, who he immediately begins to terrorize (01:30:31 - 01:33:20). ‘A good memory for faces and ankles.’ (This refers to the scene in which he sees the Girl sitting in her garden and looks at her ankels whereupon she slams the gate in his face (00:21:56). ‘He takes advantage of the opportunities War offers scoundrels of all races and ages.’ He corners her, takes off his jacket, intimidates and makes sexual innuendos. The Girl tries in vain to find support from the blind violinist who is sleeping in front of the bar. Meanwhile, the Boy in his German uniform walks past a German soldier on guard who is smoking a cigarette. He reprimands the soldier and throws away the cigarette butt. The Girl stands terrified against the wall, while Von Strohm is amusing himself with his legs on the table and a beer in his hand. Von Strohm kicks the chair away and lies straddling on the ground before the Girl. She can’t escape. The girl realizes what is expected of her and panics (heavily vignetted close-up shot at 01:32:40). She screams: No! She runs away, but Von Strohm chases her like a wild animal. The girl clings to the blind violinist, but Von Strohm drags her up, holds her as a prize and tries to overpower her. But then he hears his superior’s car pulling up to the inn (acoustic coupling at 01:33:11) and he stops his attempted assault, straightens his uniform and leaves.

Meanwhile, the Boy has arrived in the village. He sees the remains of the garden wall that separated him from the Girl in the past. ‘The same wall as’ where he met the Girl in happier times. In a mental point of view shot he sees how he (01:33:51) met the Girl via the door in the garden wall. The Girl collapses in the laundry room. A moment later she is back on her feet and has grabbed a knife for defense. The Boy has now arrived at the inn. The Girl comes outside and bumps into a German soldier. She immediately takes her knife, but discovers that the soldier is in fact the Boy. Her face goes from distress and fear via bewilderment to recognition and joy (01:35:13 – 01:36:08). They fall into each other’s arms and hug. Von Strohm has now arrived back at the inn and is treating ‘The Little Disturber’, the singer, rudely. The singer sees the Boy and the Girl standing outside and warns them: ‘If they see you, it means death!’ And then the singer discovers that the German soldier is in fact the Boy. She rushes back to Von Strohm and feeds him. The Boy and the Girl flee to the laundry room. German soldiers are standing outside, including the pipe-smoking soldier who was promoted to sergeant and who was seen at the party with the ladies. In the laundry room, the Boy falls down exhausted. The sergeant has now entered the inn through the back door and hears (acoustic coupling 01:38:19) noise in the laundry room. He enters through the open door and sees the Girl who shakes his hand and the Boy in a German military uniform. The sergeant salutes and the Boy tries to save himself. But the German soon realizes that something is wrong here and says: ‘You are my prisoner!’ A fierce fight develops between the Boy and the sergeant who is holding a gun in his hand. The girl settles the fight by stabbing the sergeant in the neck with her knife. The sergeant crashes in the hallway and the two flee via an outside staircase to ‘The unused upper rooms.’ The boy closes the door with a firm slide and the Girl gives the Boy the bread and meat that was intended for the children. The sergeant in the hallway is showing some signs of life again.

Meanwhile, the fighting on the battlefield continues. ‘The Allies, crouched waiting to attempt the rescue of the village.’ ‘Huge cannons are loaded and fired, grenades explode and men run from trench to trench. ‘The oath to save the village.’ A fire breather produces a huge flame and black smoke. Tanks roll across the battlefield and ‘poison gas’ is spread. ‘In the meantime the French are a little closer!’ The French are taking German positions ‘Hun trenches’ in. A German trench collapses with soldiers and all. ‘Pillboxes bar the way.’ A machine gun is fired from a bunker, but a French soldier throws a hand grenade in, which disables the machine gun post. The French ‘Again see their own village! Cuckoo and the carpenter point to the village that we then see in a classic embedded eyeball POV shot between 01:44:21 and 01:44:23 (a similar classic embedded eyeball point of view shot with pointing out what is seen we also saw in ‘The Idol Dancer’ at between 01:24:25 and 01:24:30). ‘Only one more trench between the French and the village.’ The French leave their trench and attack the German trench, but ‘The Hun counter attack overwhelms the trench.’ and the French are beaten back. ‘The French reserves told of the loss’, attack and crush the German troops.

The Girl and the Boy ‘pledge to meet death as man and wife.’ They say the vow and the Boy puts a ring on the Girl’s finger, after which they kiss each other deeply. ‘The sound of their own guns gives frantic hope.’ While holding the Girl in his arms, the Boy hears the sound of the guns and looks hopefully in the direction where the sound comes from (acoustic coupling 01:46:29). A German soldier climbs the outside stairs and the Girl leaves the room, closing the door. The soldier bursts into the room and gets into a fight with the Boy. The Girl wants to go back into the room, but the door is locked. She bangs on the door in panic. In the room we see in close-up the expressions of the Boy and the soldier during the battle (01:47:32).

The soldier stabbed by the Girl stumbles into the taproom of the inn and falls dead in front of Von Strohm. Von Strohm mobilizes his soldiers and investigates. There is no one in the laundry room, only a German army helmet. In the taproom, he grabs ‘The Little Disturber’ by her arms and drags her away. He wants her to go upstairs, but she strongly resists. She shakes: No! While Von Strohm holds his gun at the ready. He slaps the singer and walks upstairs. There he finds the Girl at the door. She can’t leave and the Girl is panicking. ‘Von Strohm says: ‘The spy! Where is he?’ (the Boy) and he has the Girl in a stranglehold (01:48:02). The Boy has knocked out the German soldier and opens the door. He shoots the soldier guarding the Girl, takes the Girl back into the room and locks the door. ‘The Little Disturber’ stands on the stairs in desperate anger. A grenade hits near the inn. The door flies open, a cloud of dust comes in and doors fly off their frames.

‘The Germans’ storm into the village, but the French are hot on their heels. ‘The French are standing at the edge of the village’ and are firing their cannons. Grenades explode in the village and in the cellars the population expresses ‘the anguished prayer of France.’ A woman is breastfeeding her child.’ Von Strohm stands in front of the door with his pistol ready. Inside are the Boy who shoots through the door and the Girl who says to him: ‘You must surely die – take me with you.’ We see the obsessive Von Strohm in extreme close-up and surrounded by a black mask (01:49:56). The Girl puts the Boy’s gun to her chest, but he cannot pull the trigger. (This scene is reminiscent of the end of the Babylonian episode in ‘Intolerance’ when Belshazzar cannot kill the Princess Beloved with his saber (02:37:48)). The expression of the Girl expresses sorrow and despair (01:50:06). The soldiers try to force the door by pounding on it with their rifle butts. The Boy and the Girl pray. Now Von Strohm himself is pounding against the door. A French cannon fires and hits German soldiers near the inn who, while hit by an explosion, drop a box of hand grenades. The ‘little Disturber’ screams out (close-up 01:50:32) and Von Strohm obsessively bangs (close-up 01:50:38) on the door, which seems to be giving way. The ‘little Disturber’ runs outside and takes a hand grenade from the box. Meanwhile, the Girl and the Boy say goodbye to each other and to life with a heartfelt kiss. The girl is ready to receive the bullet from the boy (01:51:14). But there is ‘the little Disturber’ who throws from the stairs a hand grenade at Von Rohm. The door flies open and Von Rohm falls dead. ‘The last German defenses.’ The last German defenders run up the outside stairs and bang on the door. But the Boy shoots them through the door of the stairs with a repeating pistol.

In the basement we see the Boy’s three brothers. ‘The French storm.’ There is a massive attack by French troops but the balance of power between the French and Germans is approximately equal. And then the rescuers arrive ‘American’s’, who effortlessly liberate the village and annihilate the Germans in the trench and in the village. ‘The Little Disturber’ suddenly sees her boyfriend Cuckoo in front of her and kisses him. The Boy and the Girl come down, but the Boy, in German uniform, is stopped by the French soldiers. But he can make it clear that he is American. In the basement, where the Boy’s brothers are, a grenade hits and the smallest boy is buried under the rubble. The French free their fellow villagers from the cellars and peasant women in the fields offer prayers of thanksgiving. The Boy frees his two eldest brothers and takes the smallest one out from under the rubble. The boy is happily alive, dusty but unharmed and is hugged warmly by the Boy. The Boy hears that his mother has died.

‘Happy times’ are here. Cuckoo, The Little Disturber, the carpenter, the Boy and the Girl and the children are sitting at the table and having fun. There is an American flag on the table. Cuckoo feeds the singer ice cream, while a flower is placed on the table as a sign of love (01:55:20). The Boy wears a military decoration, on which the Girl sticks a petal. In the overview shot of the restaurant, the vignette shifts to the window, where we see American troops marching into the village in a victory procession. This shifts the viewer’s attention to the American soldiers. ‘America! – Returning home after freeing the world from Autocracy and the horrors of war – we hope forever and ever.’ In a backward tracking shot we walk with the marching soldiers (01:55:59, 01:56:16 and 01:56:54). Cuckoo, The Little Disturber, the carpenter, the Boy and the Girl and the children stand in front of the window waving American flags. Cuchoo jumps out through the open window and embraces one of the soldiers. In a final isolated studio shot (01:57:04), the Girl and the Boy each stand with an American flag in their hand, while a kind of halo of sunbeams rises above their heads, giving them a heavenly connotation. End.

Eyeball POV:

• The girl is sitting in the garden, with a flower in her hand, reading (00:13:03). The boy sees her holding the flower in a classic eyeball point of view shot (00:13:08). And his gaze takes the girl in an up and down pan, lifting her from head to toe (00:13:08-00:13:29), following her body shape.
• The singer walks past the garden gate and sees the guests at the engagement party (eyeball point of view shot at 00:29:15).
• The French ‘Again see their own village! Cuckoo and the carpenter point to the village we follow in a classic enclosed eyeball POV shot between 01:44:21 and 01:44:23 (we also saw a similar classic enclosed eyeball point of view shot with pointing at what is seen in ‘The Idol Dancer’ at between 01:24:25 and 01:24:30).

Mental POV:

• ‘The Boy realizes that this leaves the residents of the village to their fate.’ In mental point of view he sees ‘the Girl’ in a white nightgown with lace, like an angel, desperately praying (00:48:22).
• ‘The Girl, is cared for by a strange companion (the singer) and gradually regains her mind and physical strength.’ She has to think back (mental POV 01:07:15) of how she lay with the Boy on the battlefield.
• The Boy thinks (in mental point of view at 01:20:49) how in happier times he met the girl in the garden.
• The Boy sees ‘The same wall as’ where in happier times he met the Girl. In a mental point of view shot he sees how he (01:33:51) met the Girl through the door in the garden wall.

Relational cross-cut’s

• As the German militarists prepare their dastardly attack on France, we see officers at German headquarters making their plans. Meanwhile, the Girl is sewing her bridal clothes. The crosscut at 00:30:56 thus contrasts evil warmongering with peaceful domesticity.
• And when the village is under siege, grenades hit, the village is on fire, chaos reigns and the population flees, the swans swim around quietly with their young. The cross-cut on 00:55:02 thus places the chaotic destruction in the village opposite the serene peace that the swans radiate.
• The relational cross-cut at 01:20:38 makes the connection between the girl and the boy who, in the trench, in turn looks at and kisses the girl’s photoo. He thinks (in a mental point of view at 01:20:49) how in happier times he met the girl in the garden. The sequences of the boy and the girl connect the two by their similarity: they both look at the photo of each other and kiss it (similarity).
• The high-ranking German officers are amused in their lodgings by voluptuous dancers. Von Strohm is having a great time with a showgirl. ‘Life’s Contrasts!’ In stark contrast to this we now cut to the basement, where the boy’s mother is on her deathbed. The children kiss her while she encourages them, after which she dies. The little boy says goodbye to his mother in close-up (01:22:47). Thus in the relational cross-cut at 01:22:02 egocentric pernicious lust is contrasted with altruistic sublime virtue.
• The Girl holds all three in her arms and hugs them. And she comforts the littlest brother in an intimate, heavily vignette shot (01:25:45). ‘Von Strohm visits the main line on a tour of inspection.’ In the trench he kisses an officer. Relational cross-cut both kissing: the Girl kisses the little brother at 01:26:12 out of love and Von Strohm kisses the officer at 01:26:20 for his reprehensible military goals, which are immediately followed in the form of exploding grenades shown, to be obtained).
• The Boy lies in an embryonic position in a wet pit in no man’s land for two days and nights. The image of the Boy lying in the hole is linked by a relational cross-cut at 01:28:59 to an image of the Girl lying in a similar embryonic position in her warm bed and looking at the photo of her fiancé (both lying in an embryonic position, but in completely different circumstances). The similarity of the shots is determined by the attitude, the relationship between the shots by their love bond, but otherwise there are only differences: wet, cold and unsafe opposite dry, warm and safe. We see a similar relational cross-cut in ‘The Girl Who Stayed at Home’ (D.W. Griffith, March 1919) for Paramount Pictures www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLbYuelp1-Y There too we see Bobby Harron in an embryonic position on the battlefield, while his girlfriend is curled up in a chair and sobbing (cross-cut at 00:51:14).
• After two days and nights in the wet bomb crater, the Boy gives a signal (with a flare) to his fellow ‘s. In a relational cross-cut (at 01:29:33) we also see that the Girl in the kitchen of the inn also causes light by lighting an oil lamp (both cause light, which emphasizes their bond).

Acoustic coupling

• The ‘little Disturber’ walks down the street with two men and plays music that The Girl hears inside (00:18:38). She then walks outside and looks at the musicians passing by.
• The brothers look down through the slats of the shutter and see the two cuddling in the garden. They throw open the shutters and close them again with a bang. The Girl hears this, who immediately looks up (00:20:52).
• The village crier announces the outbreak of war and assembles the crowd with the roll of drums. De Boy and Girl hear the drumming and look in the direction it comes from (00:32:56).
• Some time later, Von Strohm is chasing the Girl like a wild animal. He holds her as a prize and tries to overpower her. But then he hears his superior’s car pulling up to the inn (01:33:11). He stops his assault attempt, straightens his uniform and leaves.
• The Boy and the Girl flee to the laundry room, where the Boy falls down exhausted. The sergeant has now entered the inn through the back door and hears (01:38:19) noise in the laundry room.
• ‘The sound of their own guns gives frantic hope.’ The Boy, holding the Girl in his arms, hears the sound of the guns and looks hopefully in the direction where the sound comes from (acoustic link 01:46:29).

Close-up:

• The Boy says goodbye to the Girl, they give each other their photo’s (extreme close-up at 00:40:40 and 00:40:49) and kiss.
• In the laundry room of the inn, the ‘Little Disturber’ sees the photo of the boy, whom she also likes (close-up 01:09:26).
• The Girl takes the Boy’s photo out of her cleavage. Close-up and eyeball POV 01:19:51). She hugs the photo and gives it kisses.
• The little boy says goodbye to his mother in close-up (01:22:47) while crying.
• The girl bangs on the door in panic. In the room we see in close-up the expressions of the Boy and the soldier during the battle (01:47:32).
• We see the obsessive Von Strohm in extreme close-up and surrounded by a black mask (01:49:56).

Trackingshots / Entfesselte Kamera

• The soldiers march through the streets, waved goodbye by the population. From 00:41:48 we follow the leading soldier and the passing soldiers with parallel tracking shots.
• The soldiers have flowers in their gun barrels. In a parallel tracking shot we also follow the Girl who walks a bit with the marching Boy (00:42:10). And the singer walks with Cuckoo and kisses him (00:42:15). In essence we are already dealing with an Entfesselte Kamera (years before Karl Freund used it).
• ‘Meanwhile, the French, including the Boy, make another heroic attack’ from the trenches, killing many. In a backward tracking shot we see the troops running past the obstacles (00:53:28). This is actually ‘Entfesselte Kamera’.
• The high-ranking German officers are amused in their lodgings by voluptuous dancers. In a backwards rider we follow a pirouetting dancer (01:21:51).
• Towards the end of the film, the Americans march triumphantly through the village and we walk along with the marching soldiers in a backward tracking shot (01:55:59, 01:55:16 and 01:56:54).

Vignetting

Almost all images in this film are vignetted. An exception is the ‘documentary’ images of life in the French village with which the film opens. But as soon as the story begins and the house where the two families live appears on screen, Griffith wants to put us into a dream state as quickly as possible. He does this by consistently showing the images as a vignette (from 00:04:45). It must be remembered that in the dark cinema the image that is not clearly defined seems to float in space, giving the film the role of storyteller instead of documentary reporter.

The size and shape of the vignettes varies greatly. In general, scenes with more emotional impact are given a tighter frame, while lighter scenes exhibit marginal vignetting. Battlefield scenes often show an irregular black vignetting band at the top and bottom of the image, obscuring important parts of the image. This makes these images much more menacing than if they had been shown ‘documentary’. For example, de French artillery’ passes on the horizon in a frighteningly narrow vertical mask, creating an elongated 5:1 aspect ratio (00:44:19). At 00:46:57 and 00:57:43 the image of the battlefield is bordered above and below by a black band, leading to a 5:2 aspect ratio.

The vignette is also used to give a dramatic moment even more weight, such as the circular vignette around the clock that reads five to eleven, five minutes before the ultimatum, which brings England into war with Germany, ends (00:37:09) and the heavily vignetted dramatic scene in which the Girl finds out that her mother has died is (00:55:23) or the Boy’s little brother is hugging (01:25:45).

The girl realizes what is expected of her by Von Strohm and panics (heavily vignetted close-up shot at 01:32:40). She screams: No!

We see the obsessive Von Strohm in extreme close-up and surrounded by a black mask (01:49:56).

Flowers as a sign of love or lust:

• ‘In the afternoon she reads his poem about infinite love.’ The girl sits in the garden, with a flower in her hand, reading (00:13:03) and also kisses the flower (00:13:35). The boy sees her holding the flower in a classic point of view shot (00:13:08).
• Von Strohm takes a flower from his buttonhole (00:22:17), puts it in a peephole in the door and inserts the flower with its rot through the hole. This is lust instead of love.
• Monsieur Cuckoo says goodbye to the singer and gives her a flower (00:39:11) that she treats roughly and that loses most of its petals. There is no deep love between the two.
• Cuckoo feeds the singer ice cream, while a flower is placed on the table as a sign of love (01:55:20). And the Boy wears a military decoration, on which the Girl sticks a petal.

Violence against women:

• When the Girl cannot lift the heavy basket of potatoes onto the cart, the German whips her to the point of bleeding and very aggressively (01:12:56 - 01:13:12), yanks her up and throws her away.
• Von Strohm enters through the back door and finds the Girl there, whom he immediately begins to terrorize (01:30:31 - 01:33:20). ‘A good memory for faces and ankles.’ (This refers to the scene in which he sees the Girl sitting before the war and looks at her ankles, after which she slams the gate in his face (00:21:56). ‘He takes advantage of the opportunities War offers scoundrels of all races and ages.’ The girl realizes what is expected of her and panics (heavily vignetted close-up shot at 01:32:40). She screams: No! She runs away, but Von Strohm chases her like a wild animal. The girl clings to the blind violinist, but Von Strohm drags her up, holds her as a prize and tries to overpower her. But then he hears his superior’s car pulling up to the inn (01:33:11) and he stops his attempted assault, straightens his uniform and leaves.
• Von Strohm walks upstairs. There he finds the Girl at the door. She can’t leave and is in a panic. Von Strohm holds the Girl in a stranglehold (01:48:02).

Symbols:

‘This would be their wedding day, so through a misty and dizzy path she goes looking for her groom.’ She stands up, holding her wedding dress in front of her. ‘The groom’ tries to get up, but falls back down. In a dramatic shot, iconic for this film (00:59:32) she passes through the deserted, smoking landscape with debris from the battle. She still drags her wedding dress with her and moves from far away in a wide range to extremely close (00:59:32 - 01:00:18). She continues her journey across the battlefield and finds the boy lying in the field. She kneels next to him and puts the wedding dress over her shoulder and rests her head on his chest (01:00:43 – 01:01:38). ‘And so they spend their bridal night.’ The wedding dress symbolizes their marriage bond.

Fourth wall:

• ‘The girl is told by a wounded soldier / neighbor where the Boy’s company is fighting.’ She looks straight into the camera with a defeated look (00:58:35), pressing her wedding dress against her and thus making emotional contact with the audience.
• The Girl again looks dreamily straight into the camera (01:20:14 – 01:20:23) and thus breaks the fourth wall in a sense. She seems to be seeking support from the public.

Griffith

traveled to London in March 1917 to oversee the English premiere of ‘Intolerance’. England was at war with Germany and looked for US help. But President Woodrow Wilson and the American people wanted to remain neutral. Lloyd George, the English Prime Minister, saw film as a powerful propaganda tool and a way to mobilize aid. Griffith met Lloyd George and was introduced to members of the aristocracy and the Queen Mother Alexandra. After the Lusitania was torpedoed by a U-boat on May 7, 1915, the US declared war on Germany. Griffith was given permission to move along the front, but filming real action on the battlefield was not easy. That is why a battle that was part of the spring offensive was re-enacted by British reserve troops. The two Gish sisters, Bobby Harron and Billy Bitzer, arrived in Liverpool in June 1917 and filmed in English villages depicting France. Billy Bitzer was given a room with a bathroom with Bobby Harron, where he could comfortably develop films. Due to his special assignment from the English government, Bitzer was able to obtain as much film as he needed from the local Eastman branch. Normally, cinema was a particularly difficult product to obtain in wartime England ². Griffith then went to France, where he worked with the Belgian army cameraman Alfred Machin and filmed the ruins of a village. Furthermore, recordings were made at Le Bourget Airport, Compiegne, Montreuil, Notre-Dames-de-Anges and Senlis, France and in Cambridge, England ³.

But for further production he returned to California, where Griffith set up studio facilities in the still standing sets for ‘Intolerance’. He was assisted by the young Austrian Erich von Stroheim, who had a mini-role in the film but ensured that the German military details were correctly depicted. On the site where the battlefield scenes for ‘Birth of a Nation’ were filmed, Griffith shot new battlefield scenes and merged them with material filmed in Europe. He also bought original German military footage of troop movements, which he edited into the film. To turn the film into a real feature film, the love story of the Boy and the Girl, Americans in France, became the central axis of the film. They represent the morally high-minded good America, while the French are more of the loose ones. The figure of Von Strohm appears as the personified pars pro toto of the fanatical, perfidious German war machine. While the German soldiers are anonymous on the battlefield, Von Strohm is the embodiment of evil, which almost triumphs, but à la Griffith is narrowly defeated. The film is somewhat self-laudatory: the battle between the French and Germans remains undecided for a long time, but the arrival of the Americans ensures that the Germans are defeated effortlessly. ‘Hearts of the World’ was a tremendous commercial success and Griffith sold the film as expressing the government’s position, automatically making criticism of the film unpatrottic.

Griffith works out small details in this long feature film calmly, such as sewing the wedding clothes (from 00:27:39). He does not rush and takes his time, which seems to be a reaction to his Biograph days, when the entire story had to fit into one reel. We see a striking example of this peace when the girl finds the boy on the battlefield. She kneels - eccentrically at the bottom right of the screen - and puts the wedding dress over her shoulder and rests her head on his chest (01:00:43 – 01:01:38). ‘And so they spend their bridal night.’ In this 55 second scene not much happens, other than her looking at him and laying her head on his chest. But this calm greatly enhances the intensity of the scene.

Lillian and Dorothy Gish

Lillian and Dorothy Gish play an admirable leading role alongside Bobby Haron. The then 14-year-old Dorothy Gish and her sister Lilian, four and a half years older, came to work as extras at Biograph in 1912 through Mary Pickford. Griffith gave them the lead role in ‘An Unseen Enemy’ (D.W. Griffith, September 1912) ⁴. Dorothy continued with her sister in ‘Judith of Bethulia’ (D.W. Griffith, 1914). Furthermore, the two were very successful in ‘Orphans in the Storm’ (D. W. Griffith, 1921). Dorothy Gish looks very modern and attractive, plays naturally, is engaging and appears to be a real comedienne. Both Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford are able to display a display of emotions in a short time. In this film, Lilian Gish shows from 00:55:23 in 34 seconds: feelings of love, dismay, desperation, despair, indifference, awareness of the seriousness of the situation and horror. When a little later the Girl takes her knife in defense, but discovers that the German soldier is in fact the Boy her face goes from distress and fear via bewilderment to recognition and joy (01:35:13 – 01:36:08). We see something similar with Mary Pickford in ‘Pollyanna’ (P. Powell, January 1920) for United Artists ⁵. There she shows, in an eleven second shot, change from a desperate look to a liberating smile, then turns into an anxious, worried look, followed by an expectant look at the sky and an inspired, powerful look straight ahead with a comment ‘I’ll make it’ and finally a liberating laugh. In contrast, Griffith’s later protégé Carol Dempster completely lacks this expressiveness.

Bobby Harron

came to work as an errand boy at Biograph in 1906. When Griffith started directing at Biograph, he gave him roles in a number of his films. He later cast Bobby in films such as ‘Birth of a Nation’ and ‘Intolerance’. Bobby became a huge star playing young man roles alongside Lilian Gish and Mae Marsh. He starred in ‘Hearts of the World’ (D.W. Griffith, 1918) and in ‘True Heart Suzie’ (D.W. Griffith, 1919). When he was passed over for the casting of ‘Way Down East’ (D.W. Griffith, 1920), he died in a New York hotel room in September 1920 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, probably suicide. ‘Hearts of the World’ stars his younger sister Tessie, who would die of the Spanish flu in 1918, and 14-year-old brother John in small roles.

Footnotes

1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR3s0kymuig ↩

2. Billy Bitzer, His Story, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1973, pg 180-185 ↩

3. www.imdb.com/title/tt0009150/locations?ref_=ttco_ql_6 ↩

4. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc8G5s_SrTs ↩

5. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-p2PuGRhp0 ↩