Cortège arabe

Few movies of the 1890s captured or attempted to capture as much in one shot and one setting as this Lumière feature tries to do. It does not work as well as their finest and best-known films did, although it does reflect some of the usual strengths that you expect from the Lumière features.

The "Arab cortège" of the title is only one of many things going on in this bustling Geneva street scene. The street is filled with numerous others, who themselves appear to be from a variety of backgrounds, plus a number of well-dressed onlookers who are watching everything else. There is also a building in the background that features a rather obscure sign, and it would be interesting to know just what kind of building it was.

A similar kind of complicated, cosmopolitan scene was captured beautifully in Lumière's "Leaving Jerusalem By Railway". This one is not up to that standard. In part, the jumbled picture that it catches is a result of the vantage point of the camera, which makes it hard to distinguish any part of the action from the rest of it. It also seems very likely that at least some of the action was unplanned, and whatever shot the camera crew had intended may have been disrupted by natural activity in the street.

It's still an interesting scene - as another commentator has mentioned, who would have expected Geneva in the 1890s to look like this? And it does manage to capture quite a bit of action in a restricted and stationary camera field. That it does not really seem very good compared to other Lumière features probably speaks to their own high standards, and possibly to the role of the unexpected in early film-making.

This Lumiere actuality attempts to capture an Arab Cortege, but the result is pretty mixed-up. At times the action is blocked by the public, for instance the end when the hats of several bystanders almost block all the view. For the most part the parading Arabs are brief and are definitely not the main focus because, like I said before, there is lots to see that distracts from the subject. While this Lumiere documentary is not as successful as others because of this issue, it's interesting to see how the Arabs were dressed and also, in general seeing a moment from a long time ago. At only about thirty seconds there's no time to be wasted seeing it.

This is one of the first short, early films that I have ever seen.

I will admit that I sometimes choose to be the devil's advocate out of difficulty and annoyance. However, I do the believe that the following observance has some validity beyond my personality.

This short film documenented the going-ons of a busy, diverse street. While it was a valiant attempt to bring the "colored" world to the eyes of sheletered viewers, I feel that it failed its mission.

I thought that the focus was more on the Caucasions that were strolling the streets that on the ethnics. Exploring diversity took a backseat to the quandary, "What does a white man do when he doesn't recognize anyone else around him that looks like he does?"

This is a Lumiere Brothers short (Lumiere No. 310) lasting approximately 30 seconds. The camera has been placed in the middle of a busy "square" in Geneva, Switzerland. A man who is dressed like an navy admiral passes by in the foreground from right to left as a group of Arab dignitaries, followed by Arab musicians, passes by from left to right. There is also a group of people standing in front of a building with prominent signs saying "The Divan" and "Des Fees". They're looking towards the camera, since the processionals are passing between. A number of presumably Swiss citizens walk in various directions. There are also a couple groups of traditionally dressed Africans passing from right to left.

A number of Lumiere Brothers actualities have a visual compositional theme of "processionals". Arab Cortege, Geneva is one of their shorts that makes the theme the most literal. Most of the action is either of a processional nature, or is of people watching processionals.

In addition to the complexity of the processionals, the composition is also interesting because of the strong sense of chaos, and the relative absence of an impression that the action was staged (as is often the case in these "documentary" shorts). Thus, Arab Cortege, Geneva is not only of great historical interest--how could it not be with so many people of different cultures passing by in such a short period of time with so many different kinds of clothing on--but there's a strong sense of mystery here. The viewer has to wonder just what is going on. Was this area of Geneva frequently like this in the 1890s? It seems more bustling and multicultural than Times Square on all but the busiest days; and the combination of formality of some processionals with the happenstance crowd seems odd to say the least.

Although a number of people do stare at the camera and make it a point to explore from a closer vantage point, the number who do not seem to pay any attention to the camera is surprising. In fact, at one point some bystanders walk right in front of the lens and block the visual composition. We see some kind of cane or pointing stick poke out of the right hand side of the frame, possibly the cameraman attempting to direct the "offenders" to the side. Likely, Lumiere's cinématographe was so novel that many just did not know what it was, and thus paid little attention to it.