Pelicans in Flight (1882)
Even before the invention of film, there were many Frenchmen who contributed to inventions that led to it’s birth;
In the early 19th century, Joseph Nicephore Nipce and Louis Daguerre the first to make pictures in a camera through exposure of sensitive chemicals to light.
In 1888, tienne-Jules Marey presented the chronophotographe, which presented 12 images a second, and all images appeared within the same photograph. An important precursor to cinematography.
Three months later Charles-mile Reynaud was granted a patent for his invention, a machine called a Thtre Optique. A primitive projector, it worked as a tool of early animated films. On October 28, 1892 he projected the first animated film, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Muse Grvin in Paris
The birth of cinema is popularly acknowledged as having taken place, December 28th, 1895, when Auguste and Louis Lumire presented the first program of projected films. It took place in the basement of the Grand Caf in Paris on the Boulevard des Capucines. The brothers first film was La Sortie des usines Lumires, but the most shocking to early audiences was L’Arrive d’un train en gare, which showed a train entering a station, craigslist where many audience members fled in fear that they‘d be run over by the incoming train. The brothers are also credited with the first comedy, and the first narrative film.
While The Lumires specialized in vrits and reality based films, it was Georges Mlis, a magicien, who really pioneered fiction and effects oriented cinema.* He is most famous for his film Le Voyage dans la lune.
The first big movie studio was also French, founded by the Path brothers in 1901 (a different company was founded in 1894, but their repertoire also included paid shows of phonograph recordings, which were later dropped when they decided to focus on the budding medium. They hired Ferdinand Zecca, who grew a reputation as plagiarist stealing from Mlis, Edison and the British pioneers, as their creative manager. By 1908, Path was by far the largest movie producer, making twice as many films than all of the American companies combined.
In 1908, Film D’art was founded, which was something of a step back for cinema. It was little more than staging and creating a repertoire of famous actors of the time giving silent performances of their greatest roles. They were very theatrical, usually one shot… often Shakespeare.
1908 up to WW1 was a low point in French cinema, as filmmakers and producers were more focused on the commercial potential of the medium rather than the artistic. Two notable exceptions would be actor, Max Linder, who brought subtle and sophisticated slapstick comedy to the screen ( and was apparently a big influence on Charlie Chaplin, among others), and Louis Feuillade who made serial films like Les Vampires and Fantmas .
The outbreak of WW1 had predictably dire effects on the French Film Industry, and it’s during this period that the American industry grew in prominence, crushing the power of Path, among others. Even after the Armistice, the industry suffered, but out of this stagnancy blossomed a movement that would raise film to an art.
It was Ricciotto Canudo who spur the movement when he referred to cinema as the seventh art and in 1920 founded The Club des amis du 7 art. Among the members of* The Club des amis du 7e art, were filmmakers Louis Delluc and Germaine Dulac.
I’ve collected a few shorts by Cohl/Melies and Lumieres, here is a link where you can find them all;
Shorts
(I won’t be watching any pre-1923 films for the purpose of the thread, however, I am pointing out five I would like to see at some point. For every year I will be choosing three films from which I will be choosing one as the “Film of the Year”, to watch and review. I’m pointing out the others for interest, as well as a sort of extended “to see list” for myself. Hopefully it might also inspire a few to look up or see a film you hadn’t heard of already.)
J’accuse! (Abel Gance, 1919)
L’Hirondelle et la msange (Andr Antoine, 1920)
L’Atlantide (Jacques Feyder, 1921)
Les Vampires(Louis Feuillade, 1915)
The shepherdess from Ivry (Maurice Tourneur, 1913 )
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
- French Film, 1923
- Exploring French Cinema
- French Film, 1926
- May 28, 2008: Primitive Cinema, Moon Trips, and Great Train Robberies
Read more: dans movies
in wikipedia
