O Almoço do Bebê

Repas de bebe (1895)

This early film from Louis Lumiere is pretty simple as a mom and dad are facing the camera with their child sitting between them. They feed the baby. Yep, that's all that happens in this early film but it's a pretty interesting experiment. Of course, this was 1895 so it's silly to try and compare this film to the film's of today. Things were so early at this point that people like Lumiere were just filming whatever they could. If you've got children then this here will obviously appeal to you as it's quite funny to see the baby's reaction to all this food coming its way.

Repas de Bebe was one of the films on the bill of the Lumiere brothers' first exhibition of motion pictures for a paying audience. The basement room of the Hotel Salon Indien the brothers hired for the occasion was half-empty on the first ever cinema screening - but the second night was a sell-out. Of course, by today's standards most of the film's appear quite crude and this one is no great shakes but it does capture a tender family moment as Auguste Lumiere and his wife feed their baby son. It's a shot that's been repeated millions of times since by anyone who ever had a family and owned a cine camera/video camera or mobile phone, and as such there's a certain poignancy to it.

A father with his wife at the table feeds his son , who then offers a cookie to his parents while the wind moves the trees. There is a time when children will have to feed their aged parents and already before time this child offers them food!

This film, along with nine other films, was shown at a Paris, mini-film festival, by pioneering filmmakers, the Lumiere brothers, in December of 1895. The seventh film ever shown to a paying audience, ends up being the first sequel too, when August Lumiere brings his kid back out for lunch time with the wife. They are both the main subjects in an earlier Lumiere film, shown about two minutes before this one, Fishing For Goldfish (1895). Watching this during a mini-festival in 1895 probably didn't register as a sequel. But looking back at it 130 years later, it is a prime, early example of a sequel. The baby must have tested well during all the test screenings. This is what is so cool watching films from the pioneering era of film.

7.8 (B- MyGrade) = 8 IMDB.

Louis Lumiere's brother, Auguste, and his wife sit at a table, in their garden, feeding their child - who sits between them. Shrubbery in the background rustles indicating a slight breeze. Perhaps the public, in 1896, would see this and wish they could preserve family scenes such as this for their posterity. Now, 107 years later, we can - on film or video. We have come a long way, baby!