Early films of Lumiere and Melies: Their Approach to Cinema.

Film Studies
Sindhuja.S.Iyer 9/6/2012

2 Introduction- Journeying into the past: The cinema we know of today was not the way it seemed at the time of its inception two centuries ago in the later parts of the 1800s. Two technological enthusiasts, one of whom was a theatrical showman, made the major contributions to this development, (An Introduction to Early Cinema). Maries Georges Jean Mlis was born in Paris and exhibited extensive interest in performing arts from a very young age, motivating him the buy the Robert Houdin Theatre where he produced and staged several plays. The Lumire brothers, Auguste and Louis on the other hand were born in France to a person who owned a photographic firm. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photography process, by introducing the dry-plate method, which was a major step towards moving images. Maries Georges Jean Mlis and the Lumire brothers are accredited for the creation of the modern Hollywood films. The Birth of Hollywood: The Birth of the movies can be dated back to the early 1800s when the captured motion pictures were for the first time displayed in a commercial exhibition 1878, by Eadweard Muybridge using the Kinetoscope, invented by Thomas Edison. This was followed by several such attempts by others who wished to demonstrate their skills in capturing live moments and eternalizing them (Cinema of the United States). This was followed by the invention of the cinmatographe, by the Lumiere brothers, which they were initially involved in making films, however in the later years they restricted themselves to producing and renting out cinmatographe to other production companies across the world. They used this technology to capture the various moving images and made small documentaries of real life events like the famous employees leaving a factory. The cinmatographe was patented in the February of 1895. In their attempt to exhibit their creation of motion pictures to the world, they toured around the various parts of the world and finally reached Paris, where the Lumire brothers happened to meet Georges Mlis. Mlis, after witnessing the public display of the cinmatographe, by the Lumire brothers, he expressed his enthusiasm to buy the same. However, his offer was turned down. Following this disappointment Mlis brought his own Kinetoscope and started the first film screening on April 4 1896(An Introduction to Early Cinema).Mlis mostly made show reels that lasted a minute before he started making fantasy films. These contributions backed by the advancement of science and technology that facilitated the coming in of movie cameras that were capable of capturing images more efficiently. The era of motion pictures was then followed by the silent era, which was mostly narrative in nature.

3 Contribution of Lumiere and Melies to Hollywood: Melies: Contributing to over 500 films in his entire film career, in which he donned many hats as an actor, producer, photographer and director, Melies is credited of having invented many of the techniques that were later popularized by the world cinema. For instance, the introduction of the dissolve technique can be accredited to Melies who hit upon the possibility of cinema to distort and re-present time and space in different ways, i.e. by creating an illusion of reality. This apart his contributions are recognized world over in terms of originating the idea of fantasy films, double exposures and many other such intriguing techniques (An Introduction to Early Cinema). However, his great inventions and contributions to art failed to help him in reality, as he was declared bankrupt in 1920 until a French film company decided to honor his contributions by providing him free accommodation (How to Read a Film). Lumiere: The invention of the cinmatographe by the Lumiere brothers enabled the process of filming outside a studio possible. Until then the Kinetoscope of was used to capture images in a studio setting and not in natural light in the outside world or on streets. A comparison of the approach to film by Lumiere and Melies: A study of the history of films and the contributions made by many eminent people essentially begins with the mention of the two great people Mlis and Lumire. Varying approaches to filmmaking: Lumire brothers preferred to eternalize the fact of existence while Mlis essentially made expressive narratives. In other words, it can be said that while the Lumire brothers preferred to bring to life the various elements of real life situations to portray them as visuals on screen, Mlis made fantasy films that were re-creations of real life events or based on fictional accounts. The journey of the Lumire brothers, Louis and Auguste into filmmaking was from photography as they worked with their father. This connection with photography led to their stint in filming real life scenes in street set up. The show reels consisted of small 1 minute recording of people as they were living the moments of their life to be eternalized. The films by Lumire therefore told no stories, but just reproduced time, place and environment so effectively that it continued to enthrall the audience. While the Lumire brothers preferred realistic cinema, Mlis was more drawn towards fantasy and larger than life images. It can also be said that Mlis was drawn more towards horror films in the earlier part of his career. In the Autumn of 1896, an event occurred which has since passed into film folklore and changed the way Mlis looked at filmmaking. Whilst filming a simple street scene, Mlis camera jammed and it took him a few seconds to rectify the problem. Thinking no more about the incident, Mlis processed

4 the film and was struck by the effect such a incident had on the scene - objects suddenly appeared, disappeared or were transformed into other objects.(Introduction to Early Cinema). Major works: Lumire brothers: Workers Leaving the Factory, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, Baby's Lunch, The Sprinkler Sprinkled. Mlis: La caverne Maudite, 1898; Un Homme de tete, 1898; Cendrillon, 1899.

References: How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, Multimedia: Language, History, theory; James Monaco French National Cinema; Susan Hayward Who's Who of Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey
An Introduction to World Cinema; By Aristides Gazetas http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/melies_bio.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nj0vEO4Q6s