LOCATING D.W. GRIFFITH IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA Film as an art form is relative a new invention with respect to literature, music, and painting. However, in spite of being an invention of the late 19th century, film as a medium has consistently developed itself by its own authority creating for itself a language - the film language. Like words and sentences in literature, rhythm and tempo in music and lines and shapes in painting, in film there are shots, scenes and sequences. Shots are the building blocks of a film. These shots, joined one by one, creates a unified whole i.e. a scene. Several scenes together, make a sequence, and several sequences create a story. However, this grammar and language of film, was not always this simple and story-telling was not always the main purpose of a film. In the early days, when the films were being made, they actually created awe and wonder in the audience by its sheer quality of presenting moving picture; the audience got fasc
The Realism and Humanism in Pather Panchali Satyajit Ray is a name which is much revered with in the film world. He is the Godfather of Indian Cinema, a true auteur, and a master storyteller who single-handedly broke the conventional drawbacks of film making during the early 1950s in India. But at the core, he depicted simple stories, simple conflicts, and characters who were mainly drawn upon the ones we are accustomed with which makes us connect more deeply with them. It is his vehement use of realism and lyrical humanism in his films which gave them a universal quality. A scene from Pather Panchali. The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly. ...I feel that he is a "giant" of the movie industry. -Akira Kurosawa Realism in Films Realism in