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| D. W. Griffith: A Corner in Wheat (US 1909). The wheat king (Frank Powell) is found crushed under his wheat just when he has achieved total control of the world market. |
/ / US / 1909 / Griffith, D. W. / / drama
Corner In Wheat, A. PC: Biograph. D: D. W. Griffith. CAST: James Kirkwood, Linda Arvidson, Frank Powell. 292 m /15 fps/ 17’. Münchner Filmmuseum print. Grand piano: Donald Sosin. Le Giornate Muto (GCM), Pordenone, Cinema Verdi, on Saturday, 18 October 1997. **** The title means wheat monopoly. As I knew previously only a 16 mm paper print transfer of the film, the discovery was startling. Firstly, in contrast to the clumsy and pedestrian Griffiths of only a year earlier. Secondly, in comparison to any modern filmmaking. The laconic force, the immediacy, the boldness of the idea. Lastly, there is the theme of exploitation: the power of the grain speculators versus the suffering of the have-nots.
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Russell Merritt (GCM 1997): "A Corner in Wheat, shot mid-November 1909, occupies a pivotal role in Griffith's career at Biograph, and more generally, in early motion picture history. It is fair to say that film audiences had never seen anything quite like it: a movie that brought principles of parallel editing to new levels of abstraction, stretched narrative form as never before, and above all, used the power of moving images to express outrage over an ongoing social injustice." -RM
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