Autour d'une cabine

Autour d'une cabine (1894)

Émile Reynaud directed this extremely early animated film that's certainly entertaining on a number of levels. The story is pretty simple as we see a couple people swimming before getting on a boat. If you're looking for a well-detailed plot then you're not going to find it here. This film is obviously interesting because of how early it was made and by the fact that it was one of the first animated films.

As far as the images goes, I thought for the most part they were extremely good with a few sequences that really stand out. The best for me was the scene where the two ladies are in the water and they slide down in it to get more water on them. I thought this looked terrific as did the scene where the boat comes out with them on it. Again, there's certainly nothing here that matches Walt Disney but you have to respect that this here is where everything started.

A guy wears a belt on his forehead!! The belt strap stretches hundreds of kilometers out of the ocean onto dry surface where a woman tugs the piss out of it when she takes the trash out or lays on top of a car and sits up of out of an impulse. At one point the woman had a sudden thought and aggressively turned a steering wheel which pulled on the belt strap and it forced the mans head down leftward into a one pound flower.

This short antique animation does not have any theme, but has a bad plot (or, to better say: a bad sketch), and a rather memorable form. To declare the ending by using a boat's sail, is actually the most memorable point of this animation, to me.

Autour d'une cabine (1894), is also known as, Autour d'une cabine ou Mésaventures d'un copurchic aux bains de mer (1894). It is known in English as, Around a Cabin or the Misadventures of a Couple at the Seaside (1894). It sounds like the filmmaker, Émile Reynaud, did charge admission for his shows, that began in 1894, but the screenings really didn't get rolling until 1895. He probably improved upon the film with its re-screenings, until his show ended in 1900. Reynaud hand-cranked reels of hand-painted film cells and projected the image onto a screen. This animated comedy, may not, totally fit the description of a motion picture experience, but for film history's sake, it is important to see Autour d'une cabine (1894).

The plot for this two minute film, is an interesting topic, for being one of the first ever. It has a beach background, with an appealing oceanside view and changing huts for the swimmers. A woman is trying to enjoy her day at the beach with her dog and garners the attention of a man, who gets caught peeping into her changing tent, by another person. Once the man is chased away, the two remaining beach-goers enjoy a swim, while a sailboat flows by. Autour d'une cabine (1894), is a history-making moment in film history. The only difference this film has from normal films, is the fact, that there is no recorded image on the film, only paint. The animation sequences, also showed the humor the French had, all the way back in the mid-1890s.

8.5 (B+ MyGrade) = 8 IMDB.

A pre-cinema display of what was to become animation. Reynaud's invention and use of the Théâtre Optique impressed early viewers enough to leave a significant mark and he has become one of the key innovators of the entertainment industry. This brief scene has minor plot, but advancement and character development is present.