The First Film

Beautifully made and compelling to watch, this is a stylish personal journey taking us back in time to 19th Century Leeds, where we discover the original, yet still unknown and unsung, inventor of the first moving image.

The director's passion for his subject is as focused as it is clear, and David Nicholas Wilkinson, himself a former actor, is as charming as he is charismatic. Placing himself at the centre of the film's journey of discovery, Wilkinson has created a smoothly seductive narrative device, transforming what in lesser hands might have amounted to a mere factual programme into the story of one man's obsessive mission to investigate the truth about the birth of cinema, a truth mired in the mists of 19th century history and the brutal competition wrought by the tail end of Northern England's industrial revolution.

The film also showcases a series of irresistible cameos featuring both well-known and not- so-well-known film industry insiders, including actors, writers, financiers and others, all providing an off-the-cuff perspective that might well have been expected instead from outsiders.

This wonderful film is apparently still in search of a sales agent and of distribution outside the UK - let's hope it gets the worldwide release it deserves.

What is known in Romania as Primul film, Primul as in 'First'. The English title is The First Film, an independent production from the United Kingdom written, directed, and presented by documentary maker David Wilkinson, a pet project of his.

His "obsession" in his own words was to discover if the first film was made in Leeds in the UK in 1888. The film in question is the two-second "Roundhay Garden" by Frenchman Louis Le Prince, but the commonly accepted first film ever made is by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895. But was it the first film ever made? Or was Le Prince's?

No one believes that Le Prince was the man who made the first film. In fact, not even film industry workers had heard of him. But Documentarian David Wilkinson does and sets to prove it.

Wilkinson is a good, passionate presenter for the subject at hand, and he turns mystery investigator when trying to understand why Le Prince died mysteriously. This was during a time of increased competitiveness between inventors. Murder? Or something else? Le Prince wore several hats including that of artist and filmmaker...his death came prematurely for a passionate, motivated person.

Wilkinson also has a good eye for a nice shot, the film is well framed, and the intentions of Wilkinson have been fully conveyed in his documentary. A subject not to be taken for granted in other words. However, there are lots of interviews in The First Film and scenes that show a piece of evidence with sometimes excruciating detail. One must listen carefully and fully pay attention if one is to follow the piecing together of bits of information. For some, this may be a challenge to get through. The film is not compelling for that reason. Wilkinson left no stone unturned in his attention to detail, but which may not involve viewers.

Maybe there was a day and age that film classes were overly stressing the importance of Edison and the Lumière Brothers. I myself have witnessed classes at the Dutch Film Academy were the legend of the frightened public fleeing the first performance of the Cinématographe were told. But that is a long long time ago.

Already for another long time the work of Louis le Prince is recognised as an important part of the 19th century saga of many inventors trying to analyse an synthesize still images into moving images.There are many of them, mostly indeed unknown by the general public but the experts know them for sure.

In 1996 the book "Who's Who of Victorian Cinema" by Luke McKernan an Stephen Herbert, two eminent film historians, was published and credit was certainly given to Louis le Prince.

In 1997 Christopher Rawlence wrote the book "The Missing Reel" and made a film of the same title about Louis le Prince. You can find the info about that film here on the IMDb. So "The Missing Reel" was there before "The First Film"'

This is in no way meant to put down "The First Film" in any sort of way. I was also astonished when I read and later saw "The Missing Reel". Le Prince deserves very rightly a place in the history of the development of the cinema as a whole. No doubt about that! Any extra attention to him is very welcome, like so many other contructors/inventors. The 19th century is teeming with them.

But let's not forget the impact the Cinématographe-type of the Lumière Brothers had on the general public and the gulf of innovation that followed. I am not going into any discussions here who invented what, e.g. what was the role of the excellent constructor monsieur Carpentier, but I would like to say that the Cinématographe-type is an amazing compact, very portable machine, very well constructed and very wel designed. It seems simplicity itself. Of course I am an extremely lucky guy who has the opportunity to study the Cinématographe-type no. 311 and no. 88* in real life. That's an absolute joy! * With a great and warm thanks to mr. Michael Rogge (Look him up on YouTube!) for allowing me acces to his Cinématographe-type to study and even partly deconstruct it.

Saw this at the Ghent film festival 2015. It shows interesting research and it is certainly thought provoking. Nevertheless, we know of more examples where several inventors claim to be the real and only one, e.g. printing claimed by Gutenberg (Germany) as well as Coaster (Netherlands) and Martens (Belgium). Moreover, when does an inventor believe that his product is perfect enough to show the public? Trying to be too perfect may let him miss the chance to be the first, even when his model proves to be the better one after all. Also, we know that some inventions were frowned upon by authorities and hence suppressed, or became the victim of saboteurs. All such considerations count. A fact of life is that most inventions are just a child of their time, hence it is no miracle that some seem to go public nearly simultaneously.

Anyway, just as the filmmaker (present before and after the screening) stated: This is a hard sell. Just to stand up against "everyone knows (…)", and the feeling that history lessons, the library and WikiPedia cannot all be wrong. So why bother. His film is a mixed collection of evidence, some convincing some just circumstantial, all of that adding up to his conviction. It is interesting to watch, while pondering by myself which other well-known inventions are wrongly attributed. Regretfully, I cannot imagine that some film distributor considers the matter worthwhile enough for a world wide release, yet the way the evidence is presented and the film maker's enthusiasm deserves more attention than I expect it to receive.

Everything we know about the dawn of film making is perhaps not what we have always believed it to be. This is a really intriguing story about the beginning of film and the mystery of the disappearance of perhaps the father of film. David is an enjoyable host who clearly has a passion and thorough knowledge of His subject. It is a very well put together documentary, beautifully told and faultlessly constructed. Highly recommended.