1) with Darren Aronofsky's Noah just around the corner, and Ridley Scott's Exodus close behind, it seemed only fair to honor the man responsible for adapting the Bible into a cinematic epic spectacle; 2) I recently wrote a paper on DeMille's influential silent era career, and all that enthusiasm and appreciation of the filmmaker are still fresh on my mind; 3) and more personally, DeMille's synthesis of entertainment and Biblical truth is especially valued by my aspirations to be a scholar, filmmaker, and of course, moviegoer.
But, before I want to get into any of that, I found some real gems on IMDB. Truth or half truth, I think one can still get a good idea of what it was like to work with him by these anecdotes:
- DeMille welcomed a new assistant to his private bungalow on the Paramount lot. "This is an old building," he told the young man. "You'll notice the floor slants down and to the left. I'm placing you in the left side office at the end of the hall, so you can watch the heads as they roll by."
- DeMille was sitting in a Paramount executive's office, discussing a film he wanted to make. The climax of the film would be yet another huge battle sequence, requiring thousands of extras. When the studio executive complained that it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay all the extras needed for the battle, DeMille smiled wickedly. "I've got that covered," he said. "We'll use real bullets."
- My personal favorite: DeMille was on a movie set one day, about to film an important scene. He was giving a set of complicated instructions to a huge crowd of extras, when he suddenly noticed one female extra talking to another. Enraged, DeMille shouted at the extra, "Will you kindly tell everyone here what you are talking about that is so important?!" The extra replied, "I was just saying to my friend, 'I wonder when that bald-headed son of a bitch is going to call lunch.'" DeMille glared at the extra for a moment, then yelled, "Lunch!"
"On his clamorous screen you will discover the most impressive mass excitement that the screen has offered in years. Once you have granted him his right to exaggerate the significance of Miss Loretta Young and the amorous instinct in the wars of the cross and the crescent, you are his prisoner until the show has ended. Mr. De Mille has no peer in the world when it comes to bringing the panoplied splendor of the past into torrential life upon the screen."
There's about five more paragraphs of pure praise and sincere excitement. Imagine if critics still wrote like this--so childishly in love and impressed with their beloved medium! I cannot help but imagine him a Méliès, or Lumière brother, or Edison--a man who entertained people with what Tom Gunning calls the "cinema of attractions."
For some of his masterpiece spectacles, check out The Ten Commandments (1956), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), or Samson and Delilah (1949). Tell me they don't have the ability to capture your astonishment even to this day, even if only by the sheer amount of extras.
The Ten Commandments (1956)
But DeMille's career did not start here. Maybe it will ring some bells if I quote a certain line from Wilder's Sunset Blvd.: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Yes, as Norma Desmond would tell you even to this day, DeMille is, and always will be, the face of Hollywood. As a silent director, he revolutionized both the art and technicalities of filmmaking.
In my term paper, "Cecil B. DeMille, the Melodrama, and the Language of Cinema," I identify three key contributions he made to the Hollywood movie format: lighting, spatial manipulation, and acting. Oh, and all of it is done in a straightforward analysis of one, six-minute long scene from The Cheat (1915):
Lighting
In this scene (which I won't describe because you need to go watch the whole film right now!), DeMille uses lighting as a crucial dramatic effect. Not only was light not really important to the drama at that time, but also almost all films were being lit with natural light (a technique standardized in the 1890's)! I do not think we credit DeMille enough for his innovative use of Rembrandt lighting (studio lighting). Although he did not invent it, DeMille was the first to utilize its possibilities. So all you film students out there learning the three-point lighting system can thank him!

Spatial Manipulation
With no reason to get real technical here, what I mean by space has to do with DeMille's framework--the way he traps characters in frames, keeps tight shots, and makes large spaces feel like a prison. It is easy to go unnoticed by the modern viewer because we're so used to it. But, DeMille was putting the camera up close in actor's faces at a time when the camera acted like the fourth wall of theater. No more excessive wide angles!
Acting
Acting also relates to DeMille's efforts to separate film from theater. Watch any silent film and you will know what I mean. Actors were extremely over-dramatic, from the way they moved their eyes, to entire body spasms. The Cheat offers an interesting contrast here that I would love to more extensively research and write about, as it was only about a page long in my paper. Basically, Fannie Ward's performance is a more typical performance of the time, while Sessue Hayakawa (a Japanese actor) delivered perhaps the most progressive performance of the era. His natural and fluid acting was decades ahead of its time. To attribute it all to him, or to DeMille's direction, would be the subject of a very interesting research project.
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Forgive me if I'm rambling. There's so much to say, as I try my best to keep it brief. Not only am I so admiring of DeMille's legacy, but this is also my first tribute! Exciting stuff.
One last proclamation and then I'm done.
On DeMille's legacy page, easy to find on google, there is nothing more inspiring than reading, "Raised with a love for and knowledge of the Bible, DeMille saw the screen as a universal pulpit." As an aspiring Christian filmmaker, I cannot help but praise his mentality. As much as I am looking forward to seeing Noah's endeavor on the arc or the Israelite exodus out of Egypt blown to epic proportions on the big screen, it is saddening to think of them as Hollywood commercialization. Not that DeMille's Biblical epics were any different from an industry standpoint, but he still believed in his projects as Biblical truth. Controversy regarding Aronofsky's green message in Noah or Ridley Scott calling religion the biggest "source of evil" in an interview about Exodus, just dampens my excitement.
I am thankful for DeMille and his great legacy. He did more than just masterfully tell the stories--he believed in them.

Loved this, you're an amazing writer. Interested in DeMille's Exodus, I'd love to see a 1923 film like that. Sounds very interesting. You're incredible didn't you know? I adore you and your new blog, hope you fill it with thousands of posts! <3
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