Le débarquement du congrès de photographie à Lyon

Louis Lumiere was a businessman. Since he was in the photographic business (his families factory in Lyon, France produced what many considered to be the best treated glass plates used in photography at that time - the mid 1890s), he was also a photographer. But, I am sure, he considered himself first-and-foremost a scientist. He considered his new invention, the Cinematopgraph, to be a scientific instrument. That is why during 1894 and 1895, he spent quite a bit of effort to gain approbation from various scientific groups. He wanted to keep the photographic community, in which he was well known, appraised of his endeavors. One method of doing this was to attend, in June 1895, a congress of photographers that was gathering at Neuville-Sur-Soane - a town just a short distance north of Lyon.

Louis positioned his camera at the base of a gangplank down which delegates to the conference descended from a Soane river ferry. Certainly, all of the descending men and women knew, by that time, of Louis' invention - although it had not yet been made public. Later that evening the Lumiere brothers showed the congress attendees eight of their less-than-one-minute films. And in one of these films the members saw themselves descending from the boat.

I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place – but that's about it.

Anyway onto this film which is as the title suggests, lots of people getting off a boat. This is essentially a rerun of the Lumière film that saw lots of people leaving a factory and it is as exciting. The only thing that did make it interesting to me was the people in question react differently from those leaving the works in the other film. Maybe it is to do with their class, or maybe they are more savvy about cameras or maybe they are just told to do this but some wave, smile etc – a reaction you would get today but interesting to see it then when such a thing was very much a novelty.

Other than this point of interest though, I found the film to be what it now is – a historical novelty that can only be seen as such.

This film is a virtual remake of 'Sortie d'Usine', perhaps making it the first self-referential movie. Instead of the workers streaming out of the factory, we have fellow cinematograph specialists disembarking a liner for a congress. Instead of workers silently doing their masters' bidding, we have colleagues, friends, peers, fearlessly greeting the camera as equals.

This is a film about film - the Congressionists walk with their cameras; this film was precessed immediately for viewing at the conference. Already, the Lumieres' desire to 'objectively' record the world has turned into a naval-gazing admission of defeat, of the impossibility of objectivity untainted by subjectivity or ideology. Godard once suggested that the most honest film would be of a camera recording itself in a mirror. This film is an early grasping of what he means.

Louis Lumiere sets his camera's sight on other filmmakers. As they exit the boat at Lyon, the attendees greet the camera. August Lumiere is one of the people filmed. As the people filmed were attending the Photographical Congress, they must have appreciated the camera set up before them. Some greet it, while others duck quickly out of the way.

The Lumieres were keen on filming everyday life. They wanted to record everyday moments in normal life. We are able to witness the styles of dress as well as the mannerisms of the people in the late nineteen hundreds.

YOU WILL LIKE THIS FILM, IF YOU LOVED: "Employees Leaving the Lumiere Factory" IF YOU HATED: "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots"

This film, along with nine other films, were shown at a Paris, mini-film festival, by pioneering filmmakers, the Lumiere brothers, in December of 1895. Most film historians place this date as the start of the film industry. The third movie ever shown to a paying audience, actually says a lot in its short 37 second runtime. The photographers disembark off of a passenger ferry in Neuville-sur-Saône, Rhône, France. Try to remember these guys aren't politicians, but photographers, assembling for a big meeting. The backdrop view of the bridge reminded me of various times in my life when I took a boat trip near a bridge that size. It created some nostalgia for me, which is the prime point of enjoying pioneering films from the silent era. Getting off a boat, feeling the waves underneath, taking in the fresh outside air, speaks volumes here. There are various restorations I found on YouTube for this film, that are really good. If you search you can find perfect versions of this movie.

I thought it was interesting seeing the photographers, tipping their hats to the film cameraman. It showed a respect between the photographers and the cinematographer himself. Being in the 21st century now and seeing it from this point of view, the first thing you think about is, a lot of these guys might lose their jobs someday to this new medium called moving pictures. They were having so much fun, assembling for their photography meeting, they didn't realize they were looking into their future, through the film camera lens of this new medium. Photography had been around for almost 60 years by this point and it begs to wonder if they felt threatened by the new technology that was looking them in the eye. The men coming off the boat created an atmosphere of foreshadowing. It was a preview of an era of innovations, that was coming to the world soon.

9.9 (A+ MyGrade) = 10 IMDB.