Louis Lumière

Like all the early Lumiere Brothers shorts, this consists of just one shot, of Auguste Lumiere, his wife and baby daughter having breakfast. in a rural setting. In itself completely banal, the shot derives its power from the fact that shows us living people filmed in a real setting over a hundred years ago. It is also historically important for being part of the original Lumiere Brothers film programme shown on December 28, 1895 (imdb)

This is another one-shot Lumiere Brothers film, which consists of a single shot of a boat leaving the port, being watched by members of the Lumiere family (imdb)

A train, with a camera mounted near the front, pulls out of the Jerusalem station. It passes groups, first of Europeans, then Palestinian Arabs, then Palestinian Jews. Dress, hats, and facial hair are each distinctive group to group. Except for the station itself, the buildings visible in the background are ruins - no more than crumbling walls. (imdb)

Another milestone in film history - this may well have been the very first film to have been developed and shown to its subjects (the members of the Congress of Photographic Societies) on the same day that they were filmed (imdb)

Another of the Lumiere Brothers' one-shot films, this time showing a steam train arriving at a station and moving towards the camera It has passed into film folklore for the incident that occurred at its world premiere, when the audience, unfamiliar with the cinema thought the train was really coming right at them, and panicked! (imdb)

The 'plot' is outlined by the title: the film consists of a single shot of workers leaving the Lumiere factory, and the film would be of virtually no interest (except to students of late 19th century clothing) were it not for the fact that it was the first film ever to be projected to a paying audience, and is consequently one of the most important films in the history of the cinema (imdb)

This may well be the first sight gag in cinema history, and it's certainly one of the most famous - a gardener is watering the flowers; a young boy steps on the hose, thus blocking the flow of water; the gardener looks down the hose to see what's happening; the boy lifts his foot off (imdb)

Another single-shot Lumiere Brothers film, this time showing the demolition of a wall in the grounds of the factory... (imdb)

Two babies are seated right next to each other, with trays in front of them holding toys and other objects. One baby reaches over to take something from the other's tray, and then starts to hit the other baby. The first baby persists in these efforts even when the other starts to cry. (imdb)

In commedia dell'arte style, an actor on a stool presents six distinct characters through speedy application of whiskers and a hat or, in one case, a wig followed by a few gestures. First he becomes the large-nosed squire whipping his horse as he rides in his surrey, then he's a kindly mustachioed ticket taker, next an imperious sea captain with the bearded look of Czar Nicholas... (imdb)

Carmaux is in south-central France, near the Tarn River. As a brick of coke, about four feet high and three feet wide, is gradually pushed out of a smelter into a yard, one worker sprays it with water from a hose while two workers with long metal rakes wait to spread it out. Other workers buzz in and out of the foreground of the stationary camera. Atop the first level of the brick smelter, workers push full carts of coal along a track.

Two girls do one of their chores. Standing alongside a tree-lined farmhouse, two children who are about ten and four years old toss grain to a flock of about 50 domesticated ducks. A woman watches them briefly and then moves on. The older girl has her grain in a bucket, the younger one's grain is in her apron. The children stay in one spot, as does the camera; it's the ducks that move around. Chickens are in the background; only one braves the ducks' territory. (imdb)

Wintertime in Lyons. About a dozen people, men and women, are having a snowball fight in the middle of a tree-lined street. The cyclist coming along the road becomes the target of opportunity. He falls off his bicycle. He's not hurt, but he rides back the way he came, as the fight continues. Uh-oh. He forgot his cap in the snow.

Three people playing cards.

A turn-of-the-century short from 1892

A photographer has his camera all set up to take a gentleman's picture. The subject checks his face in a hand mirror, and the photographer poses him. Just as the photographer is about to take the picture, the subject gets up to look at the camera more closely. The frustrated photographer soon becomes quite impatient. (imdb)

It shows a few middle-aged members of the French bourgeoise playing lawn bowls, the same game known in Italy as bocce. (imdb User Comments)

A machine turns live pigs into sausages. (imdb)

It depicts a juggler's act .This man was a good friend of the Lumière Family.It was made to enhance the juggler's dexterity:with one finger,he makes the plates (check the title)turn .We do not see an audience -if there is any. (imdb User Comments)

In the background is a house. In the foreground, a groom holds the reins of a sleek black horse that stands in profile. A tall man, dressed in a black uniform, demonstrates how to mount the horse then encourages and tries to assist a man in white. The man in white keeps falling, and soon it's apparent that he's an putting on a show. His pratfalls become more elaborate and stylish. The horse stands patient. The little groom laughs to see such sport. (imdb)

Outdoors, with a nondescript building in the background, four men stand, each holding the corner of a blanket stretched parallel to the ground. They wear the clothes of laborers. By the back corner on our left stands a uniformed man who seems in charge... (imdb)

A stationary camera looks across the boulevard at a diagonal toward one corner of Lyon's Cordeliers' Square. It's a long shot, with a great deal of depth of focus. We can see the sky and fronts of four buildings, each four or five stories tall. It's a busy thoroughfare, with pedestrians walking in front of the buildings and crossing the boulevard between horse-drawn vehicles. A double-decker bus passes in front of us, pulled by two horses. Various tradesmen pass on wagons. One van passes. (imdb)

A man holds a child of about 10 or 11 months so the child can stand on a table and look down into a large clear goldfish bowl, nearly full of water, with two goldfish swimming in it. The child, dressed in a white gown with a white cap, makes an occasional grab for a fish. The fish evade the child. (imdb)

Two blacksmiths are at work, facing the camera, a wall, window, and stacked boxes behind them. Both are mustachioed with dark hair. On our right, a smith in the dark clothes of a laborer continuously turns the handle of the bellows, keeping hot a small furnace in front of him. On our left, in white shirt and tie, the lead smith pounds a three-foot length of metal on an anvil and then plunges the shaft into a tub of water at his feet. He takes a metal rod and scrapes it across the shaft. (imdb)

A large pool in Milan has diving boards set at different heights. As some people watch from along the pool's edge, others enjoy themselves by diving into the pool, using a variety of different styles. (imdb)

Several competitors take part in a friendly sack race, with widely varying degrees of success. (imdb)

"This view was made from a point opposite the Opera House, taking in the greater portion of the square, which is filled with vehicles and pedestrians, and is very characteristic of life in the French capital." (imdb)

A little girl sits at a table, holding a container of what appears to be some sort of food. Suddenly there's a flash of movement: a tortoiseshell cat, with long hair and a very furry tail, has leapt onto the table. (imdb User Comments)

The last directorial effort from Louis Lumière.

One of the first tracking shots, a panorama of buildings of the city of Lyon

A parade of women pushing baby carriages.

A group of children in a pillow fight.

A man does bicycle tricks in the street.

A procession of automobiles.

A group of highly skilled acrobats perform.

A parade of Chicago policemen.

A colorful serpentine dance.

Short film featuring women washing their laundry on the riverbank.

La Mer is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. The film formed part of the first commercial presentation of the Lumière Cinématographe on December 28, 1895 at the Salon Indien, Grand Café, 14 Boulevard des Capuchins, Paris. (Youtube)

One toddler and about ten children, not yet adolescents, use a shovel, rakes, and nets to scour an eddy by the sea as fully-dressed women (hats and all) and a few men look on and give advice. The boys are in short pants; the girls have pulled up their skirts and petticoats and stuck in their sashes. Not a clam is to be seen, although one lass checks her net a couple of times. The children's outfits (trim hats on each child and lace on each girl) suggest wealth and high society.

A stationary camera placed amidships looks toward the round end of a 10- or 12-foot boiler that's been loaded onto the open deck. Three men climb down from atop the boiler and then remove their ladder. Four or five other workers tie the boiler down to the deck. Their pace is leisurely. In the background is a busy harbor. (imdb)

A stationary camera looks across a busy corner toward a store front marked "The Divan." The words "des fees" are beneath. A cortege of Arabs, about 20 persons in the party, walk past; the dignitaries are in front, attended by men with horns and drums. Coming in the other direction are local Swiss, who pay little attention, and a group of native-garbed Africans. The dozen or so well-dressed denizens of Geneva who are sitting on the steps of the Divan take it all in. (imdb)

In the foreground, smoke billows. Four horse-drawn fire wagons approach and pass in front of a stationary camera. Two horses draw each wagon, and each wagon carries from two to eight firefighters. After the wagons pass, carts and pedestrians resume traffic on the street. (imdb)

A shot of a street in Lyon, people passing, horses etc

A train arriving at the station in Perrache

Men playing a game with balls.

A little child is walking and falls at the end.

Just like the title says: children playing marbles

People throwing buckets of water on each other.

Launching of a ship in Ciotat.

A short black and white film which documents the workday of shipbuilders. (imdb)

A very short account of a family preparing and departing for a carriage trip.

30 seconds of fishbowl.

To summarise, a young child walks falteringly along a path from the background to the foreground (the image contains a diagonal composition in depth typical of the earliest Lumiere films - think of the famous train arriving at a station), aiming to reach her doll, which has been placed at the end of the path, providing a quest-based micro-narrative. (imdb)

A family seaside.

The shoeing of a horse.

A remake of the 1895 film Trick Riding.

Appears to be a children's tea party.

Baby fight.

Japanese wig-twirling

Royalty descending a staircase.

A horse race.

A bustling village festival.

A moving photograph of a port in Naples.

The facade and the traffic in front of the Cinematographe in London, close to the large ensign of the historical Empire Theatre, in London. (imdb)

A cat cleans itself and drinks some milk...

Three women stoking a fire.

Two men pull a practical prank on two victims.

Bicycle race with spectators.

Just people having fun in the water.

People playing backgammon.

A baby and its parents eat outdoors. (imdb)

Large group of couples dancing.

People loading cargo on to a boat.

A girl in a Sevillian dress dances to the sound of music played a couple of men at the "Féria Sevillanos" [sic] during the Exposition Universelle de Paris - though she does not look a real Sevillian dancer. (imdb)

Having fun on a raft.

A very crowded street.

A friendly card game goes sour fast.

A steamboat coming to port.

Along the edges of the Champs Elysee, carriages roll, ladies with parasols stroll and a small girl pets her dog. (imdb)

Women doing laundry.

Running of the bulls

Two men play cards, as a third watches and a waiter brings drinks. The third man pours drinks as the waiter laughs. (imdb)

A Louis Lumière documentary short. (imdb)

The Lumière catalog sold this title as 13 individual, one-scene films - allowing exhibitors to choose which films they wanted to purchase and how to arrange them in their programs. Lumière catalog no. 933 through 945. (imdb)

Children playing.

A carriage draws up, wheeling to a stop right in front of the camera. There is a cut and the camera has drawn back. The duchess steps out, pauses, then is on her way. (imdb)

Early Lumiere silent depicting people disembarking from the ship.

This view represents the passage of a decorated chariot; The many spectators fight with confetti. (themoviedb.org)

Brother and sister dancing.

A shot of a boat with fisherman taking sardines from a net.

A shot of traffic in front of the Notre-Dame, Paris.

A large crowd outside the Flemington racecourse weighing room as they watch the jockeys ride up to be weighed before the race. (abc.net.au)

A small boat, with three men aboard, is shaken by the backwash.

Children enjoying the seaside.

Fishermen sitting on the edge of a boat mend their nets.

The scene represents the fall of a section of wall in a factory. Three workers demolish a wall in the presence of Auguste Lumière. (Catalogue Lumière)

Pedestrian traffic on the square.

In the air, Alberto Santos-Dumont at the controls of his machine.