Auguste and Louis Lumière

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Auguste (left) and Louis Lumière.

The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicholas (19 October 1862, Besançon, France – 10 April 1954, Lyon) and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol), were among the earliest filmmakers. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.)

[edit] Early cinema

The Lumières held their first private screening of projected motion pictures on March 22, 1895.^[1] Their first public screening of movies at which admission was charged was held on December 28, 1895, at Paris's Salon Indien du Grand Café. This history-making presentation featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory).^[2] Each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 46 seconds.

It is believed their first film was actually recorded that same year (1895)^[3] with Léon Bouly's cinématographe device, which was patented the previous year. The cinématographe— a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures— was further developed by the Lumières.

The world's first movie poster, for 1895's L'Arroseur Arrosé

Even though Max and Emil Skladanowsky, inventors of the Bioskope, had offered projected moving images to a paying public one month earlier (November 1, 1895, in Berlin), film historians consider the Grand Café screening to be the true birth of the cinema as a commercial medium. The reason is the Skladanowsky brothers' screening used a dual system motion picture projector which was extremely impractical and was immediately supplanted by the Lumiere cinematographe.

[edit] History

The Lumière brothers were born in Twin Valley, Besançon, France but brought up in Lyon. Both attended La Martiniere Lyon. Their father, Charles Antoine Lumière (1840-1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.

It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera - most notably the creation of sprocket holes in the film strip as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on 19 March 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.

The public debut at the Grand Café came a few months later and consisted of the following ten short films (in order of presentation):[2]

1. La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon (literally, "the exit from the Lumière factories in Lyon", or, under its more common English title, Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory), 46 seconds
2. La Voltige ("horse trick riders"), 46 seconds
3. La Pêche aux poissons rouges ("fishing for goldfish"), 42 seconds
4. Le Débarquement du Congrès de Photographie à Lyon ("the disembarkment of the Congress of Photographers in Lyon"), 48 seconds
5. Les Forgerons ("blacksmiths"), 49 seconds
6. Le Jardinier (l'Arroseur Arrosé) ("The Gardener," or "The Sprinkler Sprinkled"), 49 seconds
7. Le Repas (de bébé) ("baby's meal"), 41 seconds
8. Le Saut à la couverture ("jumping onto the blanket"), 41 seconds
9. La Place des Cordeliers à Lyon ("Cordeliers Square in Lyon"--a street scene), 44 seconds
10. La Mer (Baignade en mer) ("the sea [bathing in the sea]"), 38 seconds

The Lumières went on tour with the cinématographe in 1896 - visiting Bombay, London and New York.

The moving images had an immediate and significant influence on popular culture with L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat (literally, "the arrival of a train at La Ciotat Station", but more commonly known as Arrival of a Train at a Station). Their actuality films, or actualités, are often cited as the first, primitive documentaries. They also made the first steps towards comedy film with the slapstick of L'Arroseur Arrosé.

Autochrome color picture by Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud of North-African soldiers, Oise, France, 1917.[1]

The brothers stated that "the cinema is an invention without any future" and declined to sell their camera to other filmmakers such as Georges Méliès. Consequently, their role in the history of film was exceedingly brief. They turned their attentions to colour photography and in 1903 they patented a colour photography process, the "Autochrome Lumière", launched on the market in 1907. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Lumière company was a major producer of photographic products in Europe, but the brand name, Lumière, disappeared from the marketplace following its merger with Ilford. The Lumières also developed other products such as a loudspeaker, "Lumière tulle gras" (a dressing to heal burns) and the homonoid forceps (a medical tool).

[edit] See also

• 1895 in film
• 1896 in film
• 19th century in film
• History of film

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

• Chardère, B.; Borgé, G. and M. (1985). Les Lumière, Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts. ISBN 2-85047-068-6 (Language: French)
• Chardère, B. (1995). Les images des Lumière, Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-011462-7 (Language: French)
• Cook, David (2004). A History of Narrative Film, 4th ed., New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-97868-0. 
• Rittaud-Hutinet, Jacques. (1985). Le cinéma des origines, Seyssel: Champ Vallon. ISBN 2-903528-43-8 (Language: French)
• Mast, Gerald; and Bruce F. Kawin (2006). A Short History of the Movies, 9th ed., New York: Pearson Longman. ISBN 0-321-26232-8. 

[edit] External links

• Louis Lumière at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema

• Auguste Lumière at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema

• The films shown at the first public screening (Quicktime format) — December 28, 1895. Also includes a program for the event.
• Le musée Lumière — Lumière Museum .
• "Fascinating Facts About The Lumière Brothers" - Pro AV.

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