1897 – Départ de Jérusalem en chemin de fer / Leaving Jerusalem by Railway

Directed by: Alexandre Promio

In 1896, the Lumière brothers dazzled audiences with footage of a train approaching and stopping at a station (L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat / Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat). The following year, Alexandre Promio, working as a cinematographer for the Lumière brothers’ production company, captured the opposite – the perspective of a train departing from a station. This placement of the camera resulted in one of the earliest examples of camera movement (another notable example is The Haverstraw Tunnel (1897)). Film begins to be liberated from a static gaze.

Bibliography

BFI (n.d.). ‘Départ de Jerusalem en chemin de fer (1897)’, BFI. Available at: http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a2cbfdc [Accessed: 29 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (1897)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000089/ [Accessed: 29 December 2021].

Kramer, F. (2017). ‘Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (1896) A Silent Film Review’, Movies Silently, 19 March. Available at: http://moviessilently.com/2017/03/19/leaving-jerusalem-by-railway-1896-a-silent-film-review/ [Accessed: 29 December 2021].

Wikipedia contributors (2021). ‘Départ de Jérusalem en chemin de fer’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 July. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9part_de_J%C3%A9rusalem_en_chemin_de_fer [Accessed: 29 December 2021].

1896 – L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat / Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

Directed by: Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière

Two versions of the film exist, both marked as Lumiere #653. They are differentiated by two distinguishing features: in one, a man disembarks the train, takes a couple of steps towards the camera, seems to notice it and then walks backwards until he is outside of the frame; in the other, two women holding hands with little girls run alongside the train. The placement of the camera remains the same, with the main emphasis on the train. The angle chosen produces a dramatic effect as the train gradually increases in size and finally moves past the audience’s imagined left. It is possible the camera was intentionally left on after the train had stopped to provide sufficient time for relief after the climactic arrival.

A popular cinema legend claims that during screenings of the film, some audience members panicked and ran from their seats believing they were about to be run over by the approaching train. There are no confirmed reports of this and the story is most likely a publicity stunt or an exaggerated description of emotions taken literally. Regardless, it illustrates a very real concept regarding the medium’s ability to elicit an emotional response from audiences, despite being illusory or even presenting outright fiction. We laugh, we cry, and we get frightened by make-believe due to our immersion in stories and suspension of disbelief.

Bibliography

Grundhauser, E. (2016). ‘Did a Silent Film About a Train Really Cause Audiences to Stampede?’, Atlas Obscura, 3 November. Available at: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-a-silent-film-about-a-train-really-cause-audiences-to-stampede [Accessed: 18 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘The Arrival of a Train (1896)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000012/ [Accessed: 18 December 2021].

Vorontzov, D. (2011). ‘L’arrivée d’un train en gare de la Ciotat, 1895’. Cinemaven, 16 March. Available at: http://cinemaven.org/larrivee-dun-train-en-gare-de-la-ciotat/ [Accessed: 22 September 2017].