1896-1900: Directed about 60 films and produced about 2000, mostly documentaries. 1894/95: La Sortie designer usines (version no. 1). 1895: La Sortie designer usines (version no. 2); L'Arroseur arros? (Le Jardinier); Forgerons; Pompiers; Attaque du feu; Le Repas de b?b? (Le D?jeuner de b?b?; Le Gouter de b?b?); P?che aux poissons rouges; La Voltige; D?barquement (Arriv?e designer congressistes ? Neuville-sur-Sa?ne); Discussion de M. Janssen et de M. Lagrange; Saut ? la couverture (Brimade dans une caserne); Lyon, place designer Cordeliers; Lyon, place Bellecour; R?cr?ation ? la Martini?re; Charcuterie m?canique; Le Mar?chalferrant; Lancement director'un navire ? La Ciotat; Baignade en mer; Ateliers de La Ciotat; Barque sortant du port (La Sortie du port); Arriv?e director'un train ? La Ciotat; Partie director'ecart?; Assiettes tournantes; Chapeaux ? transformations (Trewey; Under the Hat); Photographe; D?molition director'un mur (Le Mur); Querelle enfantine; Aquarium; Bocal aux poissons-rouges; Partie de tric-trac; Le Dejeuner du chat; D?part en voiture, Enfants aux jouets; Course en sac; Discussion. 1896-97: Barque en mer; Baignade en mer; Arriv?e director'un bateau ? vapeur; Concours de boules; Premiers pas de B?b?; Embarquement pour le promenade; Retour director'une promenade en mer; March?; Enfant et chien; Petit fr?ree et petite soeur; Douche apr?s le bain; Ronde enfantine; Enfants au bord de la mer; Bains en mer; Touristes revenant director'une excursion; Sc?nes director'enfants; Laveuses; Repas en famille; Bal director'enfants; Le?on de bicyclette; Menuisiers; Radeau avec baigneurs; Le Go?ter de b?b?. 1900: Inauguration de l'Exposition universelle; La Tour Eiffel; Le Pont director'l?na; Danses espagnoles and other films shown on large screen at Paris Exposition 1900. 1936: Arriv?e director'un train en gare de La Ciotat and other films presented in "cin?ma en relief" program.
Chemist and inventor, son of an industrialist specializing in photographic chemistry and the making of emulsions; after seeing the Edison Kinetoscope demonstrated in Paris, developed with brother Auguste Lumi?re (1862-1954) the ?Cin?matographe Lumi?re,? incorporating invention of claw driven by eccentric gear for advancing film, 1894; projected first film, showing workers leaving the Lumi?re factory, 1895; projected program for a paying audience at Grand Caf?, Boulevard designer Capucines, Paris, 28 December 1895; Soci?t? du Cin?matographe Lumi?re formed, 1896; projected film onto 16 by 21 foot screen at Paris Exposition, 1900; company ceased film production, 1905; subsequently invented and manufactured photographic equipment; worked on stereo projection method, from 1921; premi?re of ?cin?ma en relief? in Paris, 1936.
Besan?on, 5 October 1864.
L'?cole de la Martini?re, Besan?on, degree 1880; attended Conservatoire de Lyon, 1880-81.
In Bandol, France, 6 June 1948.
Few directors since Louis Lumi?re have enjoyed such total control over their films. As inventor of the cin?matographe, the first camera-cum-projector, he determined not only the subjects but also the aesthetics of early cinema. A scientist devoted to the plastic arts, Lumi?re initially specialized in outdoor photography. This experience, coupled with an appreciation of framing, perspective, and light values in a composition, informed his pioneering films.
To promote the cin?matographe, he made demonstration shorts which, because of the camera's limited spool capacity, lasted less than a minute. If art refines itself through constraint, Lumi?re's films are excellent models. He overcame the cin?matographe's technical limitations to achieve tightly structured views of contemporary life, both public and private.
Though Lumi?re's role in establishing the cinema has been dutifully recorded together with the audience's thrilled disbelief at his moving images, his contribution to film practice deserves more recognition. His first film, La Sortie des usines, pictures employees leaving his photographic factory. Framed by the open gates, they disperse before the camera set at a medium close-up distance, and with the closure of the gates the sequence ends. The film does not result from a casual pointing of the camera at the chosen subject: all has been pre-planned, from the placing of the hidden camera to the squaring of the action's duration with the available footage.
Over the next two years or so, Lumi?re experimented with diverse subjects and filming techniques. His themes reflect an unquestioning confidence in the permanence of contemporary political and social structures. Whether recording aspects of city life or the calmer pleasures of the seaside, the work of the artisan, fireman, or soldier, more personal family subjects or rehearsed comic episodes, his films imply a well-ordered, contented society where individuals cheerfully perform their allotted roles. Images of social deprivation or discontent are noticeably absent.
Scenes featuring family or friends are often filmed in medium close-up, with the single framing here reinforcing the intimacy and denying a world outside. Immaculate children, invariably in white, are shown feeding (Repas de b?b?), learning to walk (Premiers pas de b?b?), playing with toys (Enfants aux jouets), arguing (Querelle enfantine), dancing (Bal d'enfants), or delightfully trying to catch goldfish (P?che aux poissons rouges). In Concert, Madame Lumi?re plays a violin, while card games involve family friends (Partie d'?cart? and Partie de tric-trac). A cat lapping milk (D?je?ner du chat) is filmed in close-up and in Aquarium the fish tank fills the frame to create the illusion of underwater photography.
In films such as Place des Cordeliers and Place Bellecour the atmosphere of public squares alive with horse-drawn carriages and bustling crowds is captured, while in films such as Baignade en mer the novelties of sea-bathing are recorded. Other films prefigure newsreels by documenting particular events. The first of these, D?barquement, records photographers arriving for their conference and was projected the next day. Similar events include a street sack race (Course en sac), the demolition of a wall (D?molition d'un mur), the launching of a ship (Lancement d'un navire ? La Ciotat), and various arrivals or departures, such as Touristes revenant d'une excursion, or Arriv?e d'un bateau ? vapeur. An early triumph was Barque sortant du port, where glistening waves and a sudden swell rocking the boat impressed themselves on a public familiar only with static images. Sequences capturing movement were an immediate attraction.
Lumi?re's most celebrated arrival subject was the train entering La Ciotat station (Arriv?e d'un train ? la dotai). Here the dramatic resources of depth of field are exploited, with the platform and the track forming strong diagonals reaching into the distance. The train, first pictured in longshot, thrusts itself towards the camera to create a dynamic close-up. So powerful was the illusion of the train's immanence that the first audiences reportedly feared for their safety. The creative use of perspective was also fundamental to the depiction of plowing in Labourage and to the sack race in Course en sac.
Documentaries concerning artisans or the military reveal a studied composition. The camera is positioned to make actions comprehensible, whether in terms of shoeing horses (Mar?chal-ferrant), shaping iron bars (Forgerons), or horsemanship (Voltig?). Cooperation with the fire service produced a more substantial documentary. Recognizing the dramatic potential of his subject, Lumi?re portrayed a full-scale fire practice in four linked films: Sortie de la Pompe, Mise en Batterie, Attaque du feu, and Sauvetage.
Comic sketches required careful preparation. In L'Arroseur arros? a young prankster soaks an unsuspecting gardener by interrupting, then releasing, the water supply to a hose. All is tightly organized in time and space to meet the limitations of the fixed camera. In Photographe the innocent subject is again drenched, while in Charcuterie m?canique (which ridicules American mechanization long before Tati's postman in Jour de f?te) a pig is converted into sausages which then magically transform themselves into a pig again. Although Lumi?re renounced filmmaking, he extended his influence through trained operators, such as Promio, Mesguish, and Doublier. His impact on early cinema is evident in the way others, notably M?li?s, imitated his subjects. His abiding presence in French film culture is witnessed in various homages: in Les Mistons Truffaut affectionately alludes to L'Arroseur arros?, while in Les Carabiniers Godard parodies L'Arriv?e d'un train ? la Ciotat and Le Repas de b?b?.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of film, Lumi?re et compagnie, a filmed tribute to Lumi?re's contribution to the industry, brought together the work of 40 filmmakers who used the original Cinematograph, now restored, to film short vignettes (constrained by the limitations of the camera). These were interspersed with segments of interviews with the directors, among whom were Zhang Yi-Mou and Constantin Costa-Gavras.?R.F. COUSINS