Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages

Symbolism is definitely nothing new in film, after all, one of the pioneers of film, Georges Méliès, was the one who introduced this concept to film, but it was D.W. Griffith who perfected it. The conclusion of his brilliantly contradictory epic "The Birth of a Nation" was proof of that, and the film "Intolerance" continues in that vein, with the woman rocking the cradle being a beautiful example of such film metaphor. No matter what happens, life goes on. Even when people are vile to each other, they still have hope. The storytelling format is absolutely captivating, as it alternates between four different stories, which was also the reason why the film was too demanding for the audience of that time. The jumping between stories was confusing. Let's face it, audiences today still struggle with this style of storytelling. However, D.W. Griffith once again showed his genius and ability to play with the young medium of film. What is demonstrated with the camera, editing, narration, and even with the effects, are elements that are still valid today. By the way, even the intertitles impress with their sophistication, just like the exposed breasts, which later certainly were not commonplace. The faithfulness to capturing the era in historical stories is breathtaking. (18/01/2014)

The cradle of intolerance, futility, and destruction is a classic Griffith epic that conjures art on every time plane. Yet if I were to choose one epoch in which I would like to spend more than three hours, it would undoubtedly be the Babylonian epoch of 539 BC. (20/03/2012)