Snapshot: Episode Two: 1890s - Auguste & Louis Lumiere

Auguste and Louis Lumiere did not invent the cinema.  The technical innovations they brought to the medium were mostly ones of synthesis, building on the experiments of earlier pioneers, particularly Thomas Edison and his assistant WKL Dickson.  When Edison’s Kinetoscope was exhibited in Paris in 1894 the brothers Lumiere were intrigued, taking it upon themselves to go the Americans one better and improve the design.  The result was the Cinematographe: a light, efficient apparatus which combined the functions of camera, projector and optical printer.

Louis Lumiere’s only original contribution to the technology was a system of claws which moved the paper strips, and later imported celluloid, within the Cinematographe.  His and his brother’s claim to being the ‘fathers’ of the motion picture rests rather on the undisputed fact that they were the first to produce, promote and screen films for a paying audience.  This they did initially in the French capital on December 28, 1895, ten months and a few days after patenting their invention.

In the time between taking out the patent and the premiere Louis Lumiere shot perhaps as many as one hundred fifty second shorts.  Most of these were observations of everyday events recorded with a static camera, though with occasional panning.  The sons of the photographer and photographic supplier Antoine Lumiere, Auguste and Louis were grounded in the aesthetics of the still form as much as the technology.

Throughout 1895 the brothers presented their invention and its early movies at various learned societies, establishing its scientific worth to men of education and influence.  During this phase one film remained a constant on the programme, perhaps indicating it was the very first the Lumieres shot.  “Workers Leaving the Factory” records the exit of the Lumiere staff from their premises, a tribute, as the noted silent film historian David Robinson puts it, to industrial success.  The gates of the Lumiere factory open, workers stream out, some on bicycles, women in long summer dresses and large hats.  A big dog wonders in and out of frame, a horse drawn carriage makes its way out of the building and, eventually, the gates shut.

“Workers Leaving the Factory” was amongst the twenty or so films screened that December day in Paris.   Other shorts celebrated the family life of the Lumieres: Auguste and his wife feed their baby in one, father Antoine enjoys a beer whilst playing cards with cronies in another, and Madame Lumiere awaits the docking of a row boat in a third. 

The initial public enthusiasm for the Lumiere ‘actualities’ soon waned and the brothers were no longer active in either production or distribution after the turn of the century.  However, three films on their original programme pointed the way to the future.  “Arrival of a Train at a Station”, a record of a train pulling in and its passengers disembarking, showcased the excellent photographic technique of Louis and his invention with such accurate depth of field that contemporary audiences thought an actual train was crashing into the theatre.  Spectator reactions anticipate those of latter day horror fans.

“The Sprinkler Sprinkled” was the first comedy film and, indeed, the first narrative film.  It was a faithful reproduction of a nineteenth century stage gag in which a boy treads on a garden hose, tricking his father into believing the water source has run dry before releasing the pressure and dousing the man.

Finally, “The Destruction of a Wall” was the world’s first instance of trick photography.  A group of workers destroy a brink edifice before the film is reversed, causing the wall to magically reconstitute.  The celebrated French magician George Melies, who was in the audience, no doubt took especial note of this short.  Soon afterwards he embarked on his own career of cinematic magic, one which would swiftly surpass the Lumieres in both imagination and execution.