Roundhay Garden Scene

How interesting, moving images from 1888. This film only plays for two seconds and could be considered as the first film ever made, at least the first one where the prints have survived.

That director is Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, who mysteriously disappeared in 1890 after making only two short films. The other one is 'Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge' also from 1888. Le Prince is the first great name when you talk about motion pictures, even though Lumière and Edison are much more famous. Seeing his two films, both two seconds long, gives a special feeling. Basically you are watching the birth of cinema. It is the same feeling you get while watching early work from Edison (his kinetoscopic record of a sneeze), Lumière (the arrival of a train) and Méliès (the first science-fiction narrative). You should try it!

The two seconds of 'Roundhay Garden Scene' contains two men and two women in Roundhay Garden. One of the men seems to follow a woman while the other man is crossing the screen changing his path to the other man in the last fraction of the shot. What happens there?

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888)

If you've ever wondered what the first movies ever made were then here you go. Director Louise Le Prince shot these two films with a single lense camera he made in 1888. From what I've read, both were shot in October of 1888 because the director's mother died this month and she's featured in the first film (which I just had to watch twice). The first film has some sort of creepy feel along with it but if you're interested then you can see them at IMDb or Youtube. Both just last for two seconds but at least I can now say I saw the first film ever made.

When you watch this 2 second short you are watching the first film ever (i think). Congratulations to Director Louis Le Prince for creating this. He created an entirely new form of entertainment, though he probably did not know it at the time. Alas he did not live to see his invention turn into one of the biggest industries in the world. Le Prince started the movies, though it was helped along with other early directors.

The short shows a few people (Le Prince's friends and relatives) walking around in a garden. Realizing that this was made over 110 years ago is enough to give it 10/10.

Oh my God! It's Attack of the 80's all over again... the 1880's!! This smashing blockbuster was not only the absolute first of its time, it stands well on its own as an epic mystery story. The questions this movie raises are plenty:

1) Who is the woman in the funny hat? Why does she turn away from the camera? Is there some dark secret she is desperately trying to hide?

2) Why is the man to the left so eager to leave? Afraid that the camera will make evidence of a murder eternal?

OK, so maybe two questions may not count as plenty in today's plot twist-jaded audience, but still it is quite an amazing feat for a two seconds long film to leave you feeling both dazed and confused, left wanting for more, yet afraid of what horrible truths you might find and wondering if the truth can really live up to your imagination.

Roundhay Garden Scene is a masterwork, right up there with "Leeds Bridge" and "Train Pulling Into Bombay Station". Recommended for all ages! 10/10

(r#10)

No plot. No sound. No credits. But it was the first ever moving picture and it was directed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, a man who's dad was pals with the earliest of photographers.

The film simply involves Le Prince's family standing in the garden of a large Victorian house, moving around each other in circles. They had to do something I guess. Mad isn't it, the first ever film and it's just people doing the first crazy thing that comes to their head.

It's weird watching this 120-year-old film and seeing a more vivid look at life in those days. Le Prince disappeared of the face of the earth in 1890 and his vanishing was never solved. He never knew how much of a pioneer he was.