Barque sortant du port

This is a pleasing little feature from the earliest years of cinema, with a nicely planned camera field that catches action both in and out of the water. The motion of the waves, and to a lesser extent the strokes of the oarsmen, result in action that is lyrical, almost rhythmic.

As with so many of the pioneering Lumière features, it displays a very nice choice of material, whether by careful design, by a good intuitive feel. or by a combination of both. The motion of the boat on the water is balanced very nicely by the movements of the small group of women and children at the water's edge. As, again, with a good number of these very early features, it bears watching a couple of times. The boat is what grabs all of the attention at first, but the other half of the scene is also worth noticing.

The artistic-looking setting would have made a worthwhile subject for one of the great French Impressionist painters of the era. It is also the kind of nicely photographed little scene that would not have seemed out of place if it were used as footage in the middle of a feature made in a much later era, since it holds up very well. The very brief footage also leaves you with a little curiosity, since it has shown you a small, simple, but far from dull piece of the lives of these persons. It accomplishes its aim, and is pleasing to watch.

Yes, this is a one shot film that lasts less than a minute; but the beauty in the film is the result of the composition. Three men in a large rowboat set out to sea as the choppy water rocks the boat and makes beautifully defined ripples in the shallows near us. A rock quay juts out into the water from some out-of-site location along the shoreline to our right. The several women and the child on the end of the quay are totally isolated from us and we do not know their relationship to the men in the boat. It is the closest thing you will see to a black-and-white painting in motion.

Back in 1895, most films being released were mere experiments, recordings of daily life, one minute documentaries serving mainly as a device used to kickstart cinematic history. This particular film is among the more fascinating works of this era mainly due to its beautiful ocean imagery. It is made up of only one take that only clocks in at about fifty seconds, and yet it s more complicated than many of the other Lumiere films. There are many moving parts (the men, their boat, the wavy sea), the camera stays steady, but the visuals do not. The waves rock fearlessly, and the film ends before your conscious that it has begun. This is an interesting visual experiment crafted during the dawn of film, and should be judged as such. In comparison to many other Lumiere films, this is certainly a treat for the eyes and is a treasure of early cinema.

This film can also be found in its original French title, Barque sortant du port (1895). Most film historians put the start of movies at the end of 1895, when the father of the Lumiere brothers showed ten of their films to a paying audience, in France, in late December, 1895. However, the Lumiere's had produced a couple of other films they made throughout 1895, that would be shown later that year to test audiences, but in all reality, probably weren't released for paying consumption until winter of 1896. In any event, Boat Leaving the Port (1895), remains part of the small group of motion pictures, that came from the year 1895. I saw some colorized versions and restorations of this film on YouTube, that looked pretty good.

The framing for Boat Leaving the Port (1895), is charmingly interesting. It makes the women on the dock look like they are out floating in the water with the men in the boat. The dock looks like it's cut off from the land, but then the women walk off of it, off camera. At the same time, waves make it difficult for the men in the boat (apparently all the actors in this documentary-like recreation are members from the Lumiere family). After the camera stopped rolling, history does not mention, if anybody fell out of the boat. This film shows the ability, that the camera had in capturing the energy of our world. It also shows the beauty of framing, that these pioneers were already mastering. It also shows how far we have come, in our attempts to tame Mother Nature. It is a beautiful moment in history.

9.5 (A MyGrade) = 9 IMDB.

this is possibly the most beautiful of the early Lumiere shorts. A boat rows from the front of the screen away from the audience to the back, while to the right, women wait on the port. The camera, as usual, does not move, but the play of sunlight on the waves are gorgeous, and the rippling movement is so vibrant, especially within such a static frame, that it looks like one is watching an actual scene behind glass.

As with 'Demolition d'un mur', the real frisson of the film comes from the unexpected. The scene proceeds as expected, the boat moving steadily along. But, just as it turns, a stronger wave lunges, and almost capsizes the boat. Before we discover what will happen, the reel, and the film, ends. These early films made no precautions for the necessity of extra reels.

But the effect is quite shocking. The unexpected violence is unsettling enough, but with the film over, and loose ends nowhere near being tied up - indeed, just initiated a narrative, in the dying seconds - the audience is left agonising in the dark. What happened next? Inadvertently, the audience is required to imagine for itself, imagine what's not capable of being represented by the cinema, something the Hollywood generic system to come will stamp out. With its daring use of ellipsis, is this the first art-film, the first 'Cat People'?