![]() ![]() ![]() “A train station from afar one can see the tiny locomotive of an express train approaching at full speed. For instance, he quotes a scientific article by physicist Félix Regnault, where he wrote: “We repeat what has often been said about the nature and life of the scenes that Lumière presents us…The locomotive appears small at first, then immense, as if it were going to crush the audience one has the impression of depth and relief, even though it is a single image that unfolds before our eyes.” Vienna Photographic Society president Ottomar Volkmer wrote in detail: He also scrutinized accounts of Lumière screenings from the 1890s, which describe Arrival of the Train in similar ways but don’t mention spectators reacting with panic. Well, one still had a completely naive attitude toward film at that time.” This statement was made in 1916, however, 20 full years after the fact. For instance, one of the earliest references was made by director and former projectionist Gustav Schönwald, who claimed: “The audience generally still played along then and reacted to all events in the films they cried out when a horse reared, or fled from their seats because they thought the approaching train would run right into the hall. He points out that references to “terrified audiences” all seem to have been made years–often decades–after the fact. He came to the conclusion that reports of the “panicked” reactions over Arrival of the Train are largely a myth, and his reasoning is pretty convincing to me.Ī poster by Louis Abel-Truchet–showing the train might leave the screen? Or showing the image is moving? One gamechanger (in my view) came out in 2004, when Martin Loiperdinger published his research paper “Lumière screening’s ‘Arrival Of The Train’: Cinema’s Founding Myth” in the journal The Moving Image. Surprisingly for such a common tale, almost no one has researched it in depth. They were thrilled, as if on a rollercoaster ride.” Lotte Eisner wrote: “…Spectators in the Grand Café involuntarily threw themselves back in their seats in fright, because Lumière’s giant locomotive pulling into the station seemingly ran toward them.” More recent histories state more of the same–Emmanuelle Toulet wrote in Birth of the Motion Picture: “Viewers all exhibited the same reactions: skeptical or blasé at the appearance of a static photographic projection, stupefied when it became animated, admiring at the sight of the wind in the trees and the agitation of the waves, and afraid when the train entering the station at La Ciotat seemed to throw itself at them.” Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film states: “Audiences ducked, screamed, or got up to leave. Prior to that, audiences probably saw the first or second versions.įilm history books have shared the tale of frightened Lumière screening audiences for decades. The title of this version (in French L’arrivée du train à La Ciotat) appears for the first time in the Lumière program announcements in the Lyon républicain on October 10, 1897.Likely some employees of the Lumière estate were there too. This version actually includes several members of the Lumière family: Louis’s three-year-old daughter Suzanne (the little girl accompanied by two women), his own mother Joséphine (wearing a plaid cape), and his two-year-old niece Madeleine Koehler (holding an elderly lady’s hand), five-year-old nephew Marcel Koehler, and either Louis’s or Auguste’s wife–both women looked similar.The third, most famous version (although one of the previous two floats around YouTube quite a bit) was taken in the summer of 1897.The second is unknown, although it was apparently taken sometime during the winter. The first version was filmed between January 16 and February 3, 1896, when Louis Lumière stayed in La Ciotat. ![]() Their family owned a 222 acre estate there which even had a couple miles of beach. Louis and Auguste Lumière were well known in La Ciotat, a small town on the French Mediterranean coast near Marseilles.The first two were filmed in 1896, the third in 1897.There are actually three versions out there–that we know of.The famed first public showing at the Grand Salon in Paris on Decemdid not include Arrival of the Train.An…accurate?…recreation from Hugo (2011).Īh, but here’s some food for thought: What if the story of Arrival of the Train was actually more myth than fact? Could its legendary status actually be…just that, a legend?įirst, here’s some facts about Arrival of the Train that are worth knowing: ![]()
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