Lumière – THE SILENT TIME MACHINE

These are three consecutive short films: 51 secs., 50 secs., and 49 secs. All b&w, and silent.

Production : Lumière, catalogue nos. 771-773

Source : CNC at the BnF

These three ‘views’, as the short Lumière films were known, were shot in December 1897, when a group of Sinhalese performers visited Lyons, where the Lumière company was located. They have been tentatively identified as the work of Alexandre Promio, the Italian-born operator who shot around a quarter of the total number of 1428 ‘views’ that the Lumière company produced.

In the first ‘view’, six male dancers in long skirts and turbans, and bearing knives, dance in a circle around a central person striking small cymbals. A drummer with a long drum stands to the left. The film is shot from single wide static position, at about 5 metres. The second and third ‘views’ are of the same dancers and dance, with only slight variation.

These ‘views’ could possibly be the first moving images taken of a South Asian cultural phenomenon, and perhaps even of South Asian people more generally.

44 secs. and 47 secs., b&w, silent

Production : Lumière, catalogue nos. 1275 (741) and 1276 (742). These were only 2 out of a total of 13 films shot by the operator François-Constant Girel between January and December 1897. Further details of the others are given here.

Source : CNC at the BnF. The first of the two films may be viewed here

These two films were shot near Muroran, on the island of Yeso (today Hokkaidô) in northern Japan in October 1897. The first film shows a men’s dance, and the second, a woman’s dance.

In the first film, four bearded men, of various ages (one wearing glasses), in long cloaks, with swords at their waist, dance in circle, in what is more of a step than a dance, clapping as they do so. Shot from a single static camera position in front of dancers, at a distance of about 3 metres. Children watch from behind. It ends in midshot.

The second film concerns a women’s dance. It is set in the same location as the men’s dance but it is shot from a slightly different angle. The women wear much less elaborate cloaks than the men, and scarfs around their heads. They bend over clapping, first towards camera, then away from it. Men walk through shot in foreground. Children, women, men watch from behind.

Text: Aubert and Seguin 1996, p.353.

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Tag: Lumière

Cinghalais: danse des couteaux [Sinhalese knife dance] (1897) – Alexandre Promio (?)

Aïnos à Yeso, Les [The Ainu of Yeso] (1897) – Constant Girel