The Unchanging Sea (1910)

Time to leave genre films behind and take a trip into true cinematic history.  D.W. Griffith directed The Unchanging Sea a couple years after he first started directing.  A few years after this, Griffith ushers in the feature length format with Birth of a Nation, a film notable for both being commercially successful and for its racist depiction of slavery.  I can't judge that for myself as I have not seen it yet, but I'm still working toward 1916.

The Unchanging Sea is the first real film I feel like I've seen.  It tells a very simple story of a man and wife separated when he is shipwrecked and thought dead.  The way it is filmed and acted conveys every emotion the characters are experiencing without dialogue.  Definitely the best of the grand total of three films I've seen since starting this.

A few notable technical things.  This movie had the first pan I've seen with the camera following a character across the beach.  Griffith is also the first director in my marathon to understand film as a visual media.  The movie is filmed entirely outdoors with cuts within scenes.  The first two movies simply placed the action in a box with no real dimension.  Here, you can really feel the endlessness of the sea as the character stare into it.

This is another short one (less than 14 minutes).  Definitely recommended viewing!

Available at DailyMotion (where I saw it) and YouTube