The Lumière Brothers' First Films

I enjoyed this film but I really doubt if the average viewer would be all that thrilled by this documentary about the earliest films of the Lumière Brothers. The reasons I liked it were probably because I am a history teacher and am also a real fan of early cinema--having watched quite a few films by Edison and Méliès. I understand that early "movies" weren't actually anything like the films we see today, as they just showed everyday people doing very mundane activities for only about a minute or less! Some, such as THE KISS, have endured but most have practically disappeared--mostly due to lack of interest. The Lumière films each lasted 50 seconds and give small snippets of information about life in the 1890s and early 1900s.

The narration by director Bernard Tavernier is just fine and the clips are interesting. However, he mostly just describes the action in the clips and only gives a little bit of background information or comments about the camera-work. I really wanted more--such as biographical information and innovations. So, although very interesting, the movie seemed just a bit superficial and incomplete.

I enjoyed the documentary. It was a good introduction to the importance of the Lumiere Brothers, and their relation to early film history. It also helped to establish them as not only inventors, but as artists, with artistic sensibilities. A few other reviewers I read, criticized the narrator, and maybe they have good cause. I personally enjoyed him. I could sense his love for these films, and liked his humourous commentary.

28 December 1895 is a date of memorization for film students, but was the Lumière Brothers' Cinématographe projections of 50-seconds scenes at the Grand Café in Paris the first display of cinema to a paying audience? No, the Skladanowsky brothers accomplished the feat on 1 November of the same year with their Bioskop. In the U.S., the Lathams and the partnership of Thomas Armat and C. Francis Jenkins did likewise earlier that year. Projected reproduced motion not on celluloid film strips has a history going back further. To the credit of narrator Bertrand Tavernier and to the discredit of many historians, he didn't make the claim; he even quickly acknowledged inventors preceding the Lumière Brothers. Anyhow, this film is not a documentary about the lives and accomplishment of the two, but is a compilation of their films, most of them made by Louis Lumière, or cameramen who traveled the globe. It's an excellent source for a film student.

The Cinématographe was a vast improvement upon Dickson and Edison's Kinetograph, which was immobile. The Cinématographe, however, at 7,25 kg. (16 lb.), could be taken outside of a "Black Maria"; hence, the Lumière films are called actualities. Additionally, the Cinématographe was reversible--working efficiently as a camera, projector and printer. Contemporaries also remarked on the superior quality of its projected images (although they also complained about its excessive flickering).

Besides producing better moving pictures than Edison's company and others, Louis Lumière would master such basics as directing subjects in and out of frame, distance and composition and, thanks in large part to Alexandre Promio, tracking shots, or panoramas. The panoramas consisted of placing the camera on a moving object, such as a boat or a train. One film is in a shaky camera fashion with children chasing after the camera and cameraman who are sitting in a rickshaw. Street documentation was a particular obsession, Tavernier noted. A shot of action with the Sphinx and Pyramid as background, a scene of opium smokers, and a view of a colonist throwing grains to children are some of the most interesting films, at least from a historical perspective. The Lumière company not only made interesting films by taking their camera around the world, but also introduced the world to cinema. Additionally, there is probably the first film of a filmmaker filming. In another scene, the director waves his hand within frame to usher the passerby subjects. A trick shot involving those dangerous cars, a serpentine dance, and a puppet show of a "happy skeleton" are the more cinematically challenging productions; yet, those are attempts at duplicating the innovations of others, who had by then surpassed the Lumiéres. Louis Lumière said, "The cinema is an invention without a future", but Georges Méliès and others were proving both brothers wrong when Louis was finishing his film career.

Tavernier's narration was generally a welcomed addition to watching the films, but he did exaggerate occasionally, as do many so enthusiastic about their subject. Although my favorite film of theirs, I wouldn't err as to say "Arrivee d'un train" (1895) was the first masterpiece and the first horror film. At other times, though, Tavernier gives humorous comments. To a scene of the French Army using and abusing a horse by doing disorganized gymnastics atop and into it, Tavernier remarked, "By just seeing the film, you can see why we lost so many wars." Moreover, he provides some useful information, such as a explanation of the multiple shots of factory workers leaving, and why, for apparently 95 years, historians have been incorrect about their first film made 19 March 1895. If one wants to see the films by the Lumière brothers, this is the best means to that end that I know of--not only are their most popular handful or so films available here, but their later productions (many not made by either brother) are, as well. And, the restoration and transfer are remarkably crisp.

This is a great compilation of Lumiere films, mostly from the 1895-1897 range. The Lumière Brothers' First Films (1996), is beautifully narrated by film director, Bertrand Tavernier. The individual films were remastered and upgraded to 1996, SD quality. The Lumière Brothers' First Films (1996), was repurposed and rereleased, twenty years later, in Lumiere (2016), which restored the films, now in the 21st century, into Blu-Ray, HD quality, with additional films added from later years into the Lumieres' career. This is a must-see film to watch, if you are going to explore the Lumiere catalogue, just interested in silent films or you are a movie-buff, looking for something from film-history, to knock off your film lists. This is a recorded time-capsule, from the first ten years of motion pictures, that actually are the first real moving images of us and the world we live in. The Lumière Brothers' First Films (1996), is an amazing collection of artifacts, that are available at our beckoning. It is also important to note, that most of these films were lost for a long time and fortunately, almost all of them were found, so enjoy this highly, recommended discovery.

8.9 (A- MyGrade) = 9 IMDB.

The clarity and composition of the Lumiere films are amazing, given that they were made in 1895 and 1896. Both in terms of preservation and the ingenuity of the cameramen (see the shot of the rowers at sea and the tracking shot of the running children using a cart as a dolly are just two example), they are superior to the Edison films from the same time. (See Kino's multi-disc Edison set.) With that said, Bertrand Travernier's seemingly unscripted narration is a decided drawback. His stammering comments do little to put the films into historical context. The fact that he finds many of them amusing and hilarious is not insightful or interesting. Too bad the Lumiere Institution didn't put more care or scholarship into the narration. For an excellent film history project -- complete with historian interviews and extensive on-disc notes -- again, see Kino's multi-disc set of the early Edison films.

Nevertheless, the Lumiere films themselves are gems. Put on the mute button and enjoy. Some of the images are so crisp and life-like in motion that it's like time-travel to the 19th century.