THE BIRTH OF CINEMA: The Lumiere Brothers (1895)

THE LUMIERE BROTHERS
First Films (1895)

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In preparation for our next scheduled screening, Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty, 1948) on October 26, students should study the very first films (1895), which were in fact documentaries in the strict sense.    
    The Lumiere Brothers called them "actualities." One, called The Sprinkler Sprinkled, was actually a staged skit or scene, the first film comedy, however brief.
    The most famous is Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, which shocked viewers at its first screening, since it looked like the train was going to run over them (see animated gif, left).
    These films have no cuts. The cut was invented later.
    So all of them are made up of a single "take," now called a "sequence shot." But we cannot really call these sequence shots, since a sequence shot has meaning in a formal vocabulary of film editing (cutting). The aesthetic tension of a sequence shot is possible because the viewer knows the filmmaker has alternatives. In the case of these early films, there were no alternatives; nobody thought of splicing two shots together to build a scene.
    Nonetheless there is artistry in these short films: for example, in the framing of the shot: the placement of the camera for maximum effect on the viewer.
    There's artistry in the choice of action too, whether the action is staged (The Sprinkler Sprinkled) or "actual" (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat); in both cases the filmmaker set up the camera in anticipation of a certain event or action, with some control over that event in terms of human interest, action, movement, contrast, duration, etc.
    You should prepare to include discussion of these films, in addition to discussion of Louisiana Story in your next commentaries.
    To see these films on youtube, click on this link.

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