I didn't get this the first time round when I watched it as a teenager. Back then, I thought it was just boring viewing. Now that I have revisited it as an adult I can see what the 34 year old D.W. Griffith was trying to do. His main character is the camera rather than the actors, and it's what the camera frames that motivates him as opposed to his creative team. He's a bit like Hitchcock believing actors are merely cattle. Cecil B. DeMille also placed a heavy emphasis on scenery and what the camera can shoot. From this perspective, I enjoyed this piece of work because I understood the scenery that he was trying to embrace. Forget the fact that there was no story, the main thing was the scenery.
Review of A Strange Meeting
