Lumière Films
 
Shot n°91 Leaving the Factory (Lumiere's) © Association Frères Lumière
>> See movies of the first public paying screening about this site!
 
Shot n°407 Caravan of Camels © Association Frères Lumière
From 1895 onwards, the appearance of reports praising the validity of the invention gave rise to numerous requests for purchasing the Cinématographe. But the Lumières preferred to maintain control over its usage by setting up in early 1896 a system in which concessionaries purchased exclusive rights to screening their motion pictures in a French city or foreign country. Concessionaries were often retailers of Lumière photographic products attracted by the novelty of motion pictures. In exchange for a high percentage of the takings (50%), they were loaned a Cinématographe with its projection equipment and films, along with personnel trained in its implementation in Lyon but paid by the concessionaries themselves. Only some of the operators sent by the firm were authorized to shoot a film and to therefore possess the required equipment and unexposed film stock. Other operator-technicians unattached to a specific concessionary undertook veritable tours of a whole continent. Motion pictures shot in every corner of France and the world, from Austria-Hungary to Mexico through Australia and Indochina (in 31 present day countries) thus enriched screening program content.
 
Shot n°9 Fishing-smack leaving Harbour © Association Frères Lumière



The following year (1897), the concession system was abandoned undoubtedly because of the large number of screening locations and their geographic dispersion, which made centralization from Lyon difficult, but also because of the competition, which fiercely argued the Lumière monopoly of the first few months. Thereafter, screening and filming equipment as well as films were marketed initially to concessionaries and operators wishing to set up independently, then to the general public from May 1897 onwards. Various sales catalogs featuring lists of available scenes and cinematographic equipment were published in several languages.
 
Shot n°785 Launching of "Fürst-Bismarck" © Association Frères Lumière
Production thereafter experienced a sharp downturn (815 scenes filmed from 1895 through 1897, 613 from 1898 through 1905) and the collection was mainly enriched by scenes supplied by a few operators such as Alexandre Promio or Gabriel Veyre, who were still in contact with the Lumière company, in addition to those sent to Lyon by former concessionaries, who had acquired Cinématographes, such as Vittorio Calcina in Italy.

The real decline in production started in 1901, a year in which less than 50 films of under 1 minute, it should be remembered, were shot. Thereafter, new production featured only a few newsreels and attempted multi-reel trick films, which were insufficient to revive the public’s enthusiasm. Cinématographe screenings in Lyon ended in July 1902, the last catalog of Lumière scenes was published in 1907 and this was in fact simply a new edition of the 1905 catalog. Thereafter, the Lumière company’s only association with the cinema was the manufacturing of film itself, henceforth to a standard featuring 4 rectangular perforations on each side of the frame.

In the 1930’s, Louis Lumière for his part went on to invent first 3-dimensional then Autochrome based color film-making processes to try to improve the reproduction of reality on screen.
 
Shot n°653 Arrival of a train at La Ciotat Station © Association Frères Lumière

Our remaining legacy of this venture amounts to no less than 1408 out of 1428 catalog-listed films, a unique situation, it should be pointed out, for the earliest days of film-making and, in addition, over 600 other unlisted films. The positive aspect of ceasing production should undoubtedly be appreciated : negatives were preserved and reached us virtually intact, whilst so many other production companies wore out their negatives by multiple copying and they recycled the films after usage to reduce costs.

As far as the history of the cinema is concerned, the fact that this production is almost totally conserved provides a fresh view of these motion pictures. Long depicted as unoriginal from a formal point of view because they were invariably filmed as stationary shots involving a single take, Lumière scenes nonetheless include a hundred or so traveling shots (or " panoramas " as they were termed at the time) and as many strips featuring multiple shots. The value of their conserved images also lies in the eye-witness account they provide of the turn of the century and in the choice of subjects, which reflects a biased and partial view of the world and thus of the ideology of that time.

These comedies, these views of cities and landscapes, these scenes of daily life, in which members of the Lumière family occasionally appear, but also these official newsreels, these parades and other military exercises (representing a large proportion) are as many facets forming a 24-hour journey through the turn of the century in the company of the Lumières...