January 11, 2010

Film 101 Part 1- the Lumières

The Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, whose name aptly means "light" in English, ran a sucessful photography business before perfecting the moving image by tinkering with Edison's Kinetograph. Their invention, the Cinematographe, was an all-purpose camera that filmed, developed and projected moving pictures all from the same box.

Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory was the first commercial movie. Created by the Lumière brothers in 1895, it was screened as the first in a series of 10 short films at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris, and marked the first time admission was charged for a movie screening.


Obtained from http://www.institut-lumiere.org/francais/films/1seance/accueil.html

Here's A Trick on the Gardener
(iconaus)

The Lumière's 1895 The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat had the power to astonish. People completely unused to the moving image were quite dismayed and legend goes that the audience hid behind their seats and ran to the back of the theatre. What I like about this and other 19th and early 20th century films is the slice of life offered.These folks aren't in costume - that's how they dressed!

(early cinema)

And one more from (SeppukuEntertainment)
The Baby's Breakfast

9 comments:

Alberti's Window said...

What fun clips! Like you, I love how the train clip really shows a slice of life. That's one of the things that I love most about old films (and paintings, too) - one can better visualize what people were like back then. Not only that, but the subject matter of films and art show us what people valued at the time. Obviously, the turn-of-the-century Frenchmen had a fun sense of humor (as manifest in the clip with the gardner).

Great post.

Mrsupole said...

These are amazing. I think I have been here for over an hour and a half just going through all the pictures and then it leads you all over the place to these fascinating old movies. I have seen a few on the History Channel, but there were so many and it was so neat to just explore them all.

I think that I will have to bring the grandkids back here so they can have a look.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I really enjoyed the guy trying to get on the horse. I just kept laughing because the guy holding the horse was laughing so much. Even though there is no sound you can just see him laughing.

Thanks again.

God bless.

☆sapphire said...

Hello

Thank you so much for sharing these really really precious films! I once saw the first one in my class when I was a student. After the Lumière brothers, we learned about Eisenstein. This post reminds me of my college days!

The Clever Pup said...

Thanks M, Sapphire and Mrsupole. They are great aren't they. Mrsupole I think it's wonderful to show them to the Grandkids!

T. said...

Hazel these are simply marvelous! Thanks for posting. (And I'm thankful we women no longer have to attire ourselves in such fussy clothing!)

Kat Mortensen said...

Great idea! I have studied "Film 101" at Innis College and remember The Lumieres. (Sorry, no accent there, I know.) Will you be getting into Griffiths? That was my favourite. I am also a big fan of the Weimar Cinema - Dr. Caligari and Metropolis etc.

Ooh! This should be fun!

The Clever Pup said...

Poetikat, I have something in mind about the Gishes and Mr. Griffiths.
I'm glad you liked it. Maybe I should go to Uni. Hmm

California Girl said...

You might be interested to know of the passing of a giant in French New Wave cinema, Eric Rohmer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011103810.html

G said...

This is a great post! Thank you. :)