Practically speaking, the artistic maturing of the cinema was the single-handed achievement of David W. Griffith (1875 - 1948).

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问题     Practically speaking, the artistic maturing of the cinema was the single-handed achievement of David W. Griffith (1875 - 1948). Before Griffith, photography in dramatic films consisted of little more than placing the actors before a stationary camera and showing them in full length as they would have appeared on stage. From the beginning of his career as a director, however, Griffith, because of his love of Victorian painting, employed composition. He conceived of the camera image as having a foreground and a rear ground, as well as the middle distance preferred by most directors. By 1910 he was using close-ups to reveal significant details of the scene or of the acting and extreme long shots to achieve a sense of spectacle and distance. His appreciation of the camera’s possibilities produced novel dramatic effects. By splitting an event into fragments and recording each from the most suitable camera position, he could significantly vary the emphasis from camera shot to camera shot.
    Griffith also achieved dramatic effects by means of creative editing. By juxtaposing images and varying the speed and rhythm of their presentation, he could control the dramatic intensity of the events as the story progressed. Despite the reluctance of his producers, who feared that the public would not be able to follow a plot that was made up of such juxtaposed images, Griffith persisted, and experimented as well with other elements of cinematic syntax that have become standard ever since. These included the flashback, permitting broad psychological and emotional exploration as well as narrative that was not chronological, and the crosscut between two parallel actions to heighten suspense and excitement. In thus exploiting fully the possibilities of editing, Griffith transposed devices of the Victorian novel to film and gave film mastery of time as well as space.
    Besides developing the cinema’s language, Griffith immensely broadened its range and treatment of subjects. His early output was remarkably eclectic: it included not only the standard comedies, melodramas, westerns, and thrillers, but also such novelties as adaptations from Browning and Tennyson, and treatments of social issues. As his successes mounted, his ambitions grew, and with them the whole of American cinema. When he remade Enoch Arden in 1911 , he insisted that a subject of such importance could not be treated in the then conventional length of one reel. Griffith’s introduction of the American-made multi-reel picture began an immense revolution. Two years later, Judith of Bethulia, an elaborate historicophilosophical spectacle, reached the unprecedented length of four reels, or one hour’s running time. From our contemporary viewpoint, the pretensions of this film may seem a trifle ludicrous, but at the time it provoked endless debate and discussion and gave a new intellectual respectability to the cinema.
The author suggests that Griffith’s contributions to the cinema had which of the following results?
I .   Literary works, especially Victorian novels, became popular sources for film subjects.
II.   Audience appreciation of other film directors’ experimentations with cinematic syntax was increased.
III.   Many of the artistic limitations thought to be inherent in filmmaking were shown to be really nonexistent.

选项 A、II  only
B、III only
C、I and  II only
D、II and III only

答案B

解析 第二段最后一句指出“Griffith transposed devices of the Victoriall novel t0 film and gavefilm mastery of time as well as space”,表示Griffith将维多利亚时期小说的创作手法引入电影业的拍摄,而小说的内容则与电影主题无关,I表述不正确;第二段第三句表明是Griffith坚持使用“cinematic syntax”进行拍摄,而不是“other film directors”.Ⅱ的表述也不正确;只有Ⅲ是正确的,这点从全文描述可以推断出来:正是Griffith孜孜不倦的创新和试验才使电影拍摄技术突破传统局限,实现技术,体裁,主题的多元化。
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