Capítulo de Libro: El melodrama teatral y el nacimiento de la narrativa fílmica: el cine de David Wark Griffith. En: Àngel Quintana (ed.), Cinema i teatre. Influències i contagis. Girona: Fundació Museo del Cinema Tomàs Mallol, 2006, 97-121.

Theatrical melodrama and the birth of the narrative film: the films of David Wark Griffith.This study analyses the influence of the theatre on the films of David Wark Griffith, considered one of the 'fathers' of 'the language of film', a cliché no longer possible to uphold nowadays. This influence of theatrical melodrama is perceptible, not merely in his films during his time at the Biograph company, but it can also be seen in his later films. The text tackles, in the first place, the years prior to his time at Biograph, when he was actually working in the theatre, and very intensely so. Secondly, it refers to melodrama as a general conception of entertainment and even a way of understanding reality, in the context of which we should place theatrical melodrama and the cinema itself. Finally, it shows how the influence of the theatrical mise en scene isdetected in films as late as those of D. W. Griffith from 1918 to 1921, in five films to be exact: Hearts of the World, Broken Blossoms, Way Down East, Dream Street and Orphans of the Storm.