Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
1895 ‘L'Arrivée d'un train à la Ciotat’ Directed by Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière
Synopsis
Film historians agree that the first public exhibition of motion pictures occurred on 28th December 1895 when Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière (the Lumière Brothers) exhibited a selection of ten of their single-reel films to a paying audience at a Parisian café. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.
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Popular reviews
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Amazing. Thought the train was going to come right out of the screen at me. Loses points for not being in HD.
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I actually dove to the ground to get the full 1895 theater experience of watching this film.
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Holy shi...Jesus Christ get out of the fucking way, it's a goddamn train! How in the fu...!
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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The train represents the arrival of art to my mind.
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L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat
Directed by: Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière, 1895.
Produced by: The Lumière Brothers.
L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat is arguably The Lumière Brothers’ most well-known film, if only because of the enduring legend and mythos surrounding it. It’s become one of the most famous from the period, if not of all time, primarily because of the numerous accounts around of the audience’s reactions at the time.
In this outing the camera is positioned in such a way that, as the train approaches, it moves from a long shot, through a medium shot, and into a close-up, before coming to a halt far off-screen to the left. This is a marked change from the earlier…
Recent reviews
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misleading title
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The train moves directly toward us and apparently audiences were so intimidated by this moving image they jumped out of their seats! The Lumiere Bros. filmed this at La Ciotat station in France and remains a quick, endearing document of cinema's earliest era.
However, if you can't spare the entire minute it is not the biggest loss. It's just a train arriving at the station, after all. -
Is the train real?
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Not quite enough to make me run for the door, but interesting nonetheless.
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Exactly what the title says. Nothing more. Still, it's always neat to watch actual Victorian ladies and dandies bustle about.
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It's a train, all right.
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''Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train.''
And, really, knowing the background is the only way you could enjoy this uncut 50 second film about a train pulling into a station with a couple of people getting off -- so 3/5 stars for the amusing thought that initial movie goers were so naive back then to believe the train was going to come through the screen and kill them.
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I actually dove to the ground to get the full 1895 theater experience of watching this film.