Lumiere brothers. The invention of the cinematograph began the industrial career of cinema. Photo: Internet
On Tuesday, March 22, 2023, the 128 years of the presentation of cinématographethe ‘invention’ of Hermanos Light which gave rise to the modern film industry.
It was March 22 1895 in the premises of the Parisian Society for the Promotion of the National Industry, when the hermanos Louis and Auguste Lumiere they made the first private showing of their cinematograph, which they had patented just a month before.
Moving image projections produced by chronophotographers and kinetoscopes had been made before, but their quality left much to be desired.
It would be the cinematograph invented by the Lumière brothers that would revolutionize the projection landscape of images giving rise to the modern film industry.
In that first demonstration of their invention, the Lumières screened what is usually considered the first film in history, ‘Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon‘ (The factory outlet) of 38 seconds of duration.
After various presentations in scientific societies, at the Sorbonne University, in Brussels and other places, on December 27, 1895 in Paris, the first trade showas the first paid show, officially marking the beginning of the cinema.
The event took place at the Salon indien du Grand Café on Boulevard des Capucines and, in addition to ‘Departure from the Lumière factory’, other films such as ‘Arrival of a train at the Ciotat station‘ y ‘The sprinkler watered‘, in which the gardener Jean-François Clerc appears. Thus, with this catalogue, cinema began its history as a documentary, as an objective witness to everyday life.
Although the brothers said that “cinema is an invention with no future“, they took advantage of everything that the new invention offered them to set up a profitable business.
The Light they sent a cinematographer and an operator where requiredfor example, at the coronation of the zar Nicholas. With these tapes shot in the most exotic places on the planet, the montage arose.
Their economic position and the interest they showed towards science made them underestimate commercial possibilities of his inventionso they finally abandoned film production, but continued with their patents and in 1903 patented a process for making color photographs, the Autochrome Lightlaunched on the market in 1907.
Subsequently, Louis Lumière continued his experiences by inventing the photorama and the relief photography. He was made an honorary doctor at the University of Bern, while Auguste continued his studies in biochemistry and physiology.