This sweet and simple Biograph short comes from the middle period in Griffith's career at the studio. Having spent most of 1909 developing his handling of action, he now began to turn his attention more and more to drama and poignancy.
Like many Griffith shorts from this period (see, for example The Unchanging Sea or The House with Closed Shutters), the story of As It Is in Life spans years and generations in its single-reel runtime. This cramming of lives into minutes can be a bit much, but Griffith's tactic in these cases (and it is particularly well-demonstrated here) is to familiarise us with a small number of locations and camera set-ups. Each of these has a particular context and can be used repeatedly down the years, as it were. As It Is in Life has three principle settings – the porch, the pigeon farm and the sweetheart's meeting place. In particular, the use of the latter for both the father's aborted romance and then the grown-up daughter's courtship makes the point that history is being repeated. The pigeon farm provides a unique and poetic backdrop for the tenderest moments between father and daughter, a sign of the increasing aestheticism of Griffith's work.
Although the Biograph shorts had made big strides towards naturalistic acting performances in the past year or so, there are still a few pantomimey exaggerated moments. However it's actually Griffith's arrangements and the fact that there were still a few problems of visual grammar that he had yet to iron out that are most jarring. When the father discovers his daughter with her young man – supposedly unobserved – he is in fact blundering about a few feet from them, which looks ridiculous. Fathers spying on lovers is a recurring image in Griffith's films, and they continue to do it from the same frame right up until 1914's The Avenging Conscience. It seems it was only in his longer features that Griffith learned to handle multiple camera set-ups in larger spaces.
Griffith's fascination for the generation-spanning short drama would only last another year or so. Really, the only excellent example of these that I have seen in Enoch Arden, and that at least was spread over too reels. For the most part his greatest one-reelers were tight, concentrated and focused.
Like many Griffith shorts from this period (see, for example The Unchanging Sea or The House with Closed Shutters), the story of As It Is in Life spans years and generations in its single-reel runtime. This cramming of lives into minutes can be a bit much, but Griffith's tactic in these cases (and it is particularly well-demonstrated here) is to familiarise us with a small number of locations and camera set-ups. Each of these has a particular context and can be used repeatedly down the years, as it were. As It Is in Life has three principle settings – the porch, the pigeon farm and the sweetheart's meeting place. In particular, the use of the latter for both the father's aborted romance and then the grown-up daughter's courtship makes the point that history is being repeated. The pigeon farm provides a unique and poetic backdrop for the tenderest moments between father and daughter, a sign of the increasing aestheticism of Griffith's work.
Although the Biograph shorts had made big strides towards naturalistic acting performances in the past year or so, there are still a few pantomimey exaggerated moments. However it's actually Griffith's arrangements and the fact that there were still a few problems of visual grammar that he had yet to iron out that are most jarring. When the father discovers his daughter with her young man – supposedly unobserved – he is in fact blundering about a few feet from them, which looks ridiculous. Fathers spying on lovers is a recurring image in Griffith's films, and they continue to do it from the same frame right up until 1914's The Avenging Conscience. It seems it was only in his longer features that Griffith learned to handle multiple camera set-ups in larger spaces.
Griffith's fascination for the generation-spanning short drama would only last another year or so. Really, the only excellent example of these that I have seen in Enoch Arden, and that at least was spread over too reels. For the most part his greatest one-reelers were tight, concentrated and focused.