Journal of e-Media Studies, Volume 7 Issue 1: Early Cinema History (Understanding Visual Culture Through Silent Film Collections)

The Sealed Room (1909) Clip 12 - Tsivian_Khitrova.mp4 0-182.74

As many at the time, Griffith was given to joys of Grand-Guignol aesthetics, including the thrill of watching people die. Here, we watch a vengeful King watch his lover and hers suffocate in a room, the door to which he orders to have bricked up (poor bricklayers will be executed too). Crosscut in front of our eyes are moments of lovemaking and bricklaying, desperation and Schadenfreude.

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