Zim, Boum, Boum

In all of these very early moving pictures of six seconds or so the thumbnail is the spoiler. What you see in the thumbnail picture is very much the moving picture with.

"Zimm. Boum. Boum!" (which I have also seen as Zim, Boum, Boum) was directed by Charles-Emile Reynaud. It's origins are 1877 or 1878 per some other sources. It's a Praxinoscope animation of a green-suited boy wearing a drum and cymbal.

A praxinoscope is an animation device invented in 1877 and was used for early image projection. It could be projected to be viewed, but it wasn't a motion picture because no pictures were taken. Anything we see on screen today is a later recording of a praxinoscope projection.

Although the absence of film stock still prevents us from classifying Reynaud's works as "films," I believe that analyzing and reviewing them helps to better understand the development of cinema, even before it could be defined as such. In any case, I find it unreasonable to evaluate these works using the same criteria applied to actual "films," and therefore the final rating remains "unclassified."

However, I do not consider this specific piece one of the French artist's best works, as he creates a figure with an unreal sense of stillness. The only hinted movements are the predictable ones of the arms (in addition, the movement of the right arm has a slight jerk when returning to full extension) and the more praiseworthy ones of the objects hanging from the hat, while the rest of the body remains almost completely motionless.

Rating: NC.