Just a note on Griffith's "place" in the history of film style. In Bordwell and Thompson's _Film History: An Introduction_ (published this year) they have a section under the "Notes and Queries" after their discussion of the cinema from 1905-12 titled "Griffith's Importance in the Development of Film Style." They write: If this book had been written several years earlier, this chapter's discussion of changing film style would probably have dealt primarily with D.W. Griffith. Griffith himself helped to create the myth that he had "invented" virtually every important technique for film storytelling. In late 1913, just after he had left American Biograph, he ran a newspaper advertisement claiming to have created the close-up, intercutting, fade-outs, and restrained acting. Early historians, unable to see many films from the pre-1913 period, took him at his word, and Griffith became the "father" of the cinema. More recent research. . .has brought many other films to light, and historians have realized that numerous filmmakers were simultaneously exploring similar techniques. Griffith's importance has come to be seen in terms of his ability to combine these techniques in daring ways ways. . .. Most historians now agree that Griffith's imagination, ambition, and skill made him the foremost American filmmaker of this era. (51) Jim