Le mystère Le Prince

This film, I believe made for television, is based on the book of the same title by the Author and Director, Christopher Rawlence. Both the book and the film give incredible history. In 1890 the French inventor Augustin Le Prince boarded a train for Paris to present to audiences there the world's first motion-picture camera and projector. Le Prince mysteriously disappeared, and this event changed the history of motion pictures -- with the credit going to Thomas Alva Edison. The film takes us on a quest to examine the history and mystery of Le Prince, using family memoirs, archival materials, and early film footage. In the end it views almost like a detective film -- all the more incredible because it is all based on true events. I only had the chance to see it once on Public Television, and wish it would be shown again. At least the book is available, and goes into even further detail than the film.

... written by the author of the book by the same name "The Missing Reel" about the same subject.

This is part documentary done with PBS style narration, and part drama with actors playing the parts of the Le Prince family. It's the story of Louis Le Prince, who invented a motion picture camera prior to Edison and made what is considered the first motion picture, "Roundhay Garden Scene" in 1888. He was due to exhibit his new motion picture camera in the United States in 1890, but first went to France to finish some business with his brother. He took a train to Paris but never got off that train, at least in Paris.

No trace of him was ever found.

There is a fascinating bit with Le Prince's descendants in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1980s all sharing a meal and discussing what they thought happened. There was one woman there old enough to remember Le Prince's widow and her work making sure that her husband's work was remembered. And all of his descendants have the middle name "Le Prince" just so they don't forget where they came from.

The film talks a great deal about Edison and what part he might have played in it, and then in the end offers a shocking alternative theory. The dramatization bit with people portraying Le Prince's widow and her caregiver daughter mention that they could not easily take up Le Prince's cause or take over his inventions because the law considered Le Prince alive for seven years after his disappearance, casting even more suspicion on Edison, since to cause Le Prince to disappear without a trace would have left Le Prince's invention in a state of limbo, allowing him to take credit for the invention of the motion picture camera.

Let me say this about Edison. No doubt he was a great genius. But had he not demonstrated the propensity to steal others' ideas over the years, and had he not so forcefully laid claim to owning the rights to every motion picture created to the point that the entire industry left the East Coast for California in the 1910s to escape his lawsuits and hired muscle, perhaps the idea of him having a potential rival killed in a foreign land to eliminate competition would not have gained so much traction.

This is a pretty good piece on Le Prince from a more personal viewpoint, and I'd recommend it. I'd also recommend the book of the same name.