Lumi\u00e8re brothers<\/a> films, including \u2018Workers Leaving the Lumi\u00e8re Factory\u2019 (at center).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanus Films<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was a capture of life and capture of human beings,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux tells Deadline, \u201cand [with] that group of human beings, which was the workers of the factory \u2014 women and men \u2014 cinema became something to show what human beings are, were, but still are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlready, in those early films, a language of cinema was emerging.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOne hundred and thirty years ago, the Lumi\u00e8re brothers invented the cin\u00e9matographe,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux says in his narration. \u201cEverything was already there: comedy, drama, actors\u2019 performances, children\u2019s faces, tracking shots by boat, and panoramas by streetcar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tPortrait of the Lumiere brothers, Auguste (left) and Louis, on December 28, 1895 in Paris. (Photo by: )<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto 12\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tLouis Lumi\u00e8re, as the primary cameraman and indeed creative and technical force of the team, did not simply set up his tripod randomly and catch shots.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201c[Louis] Lumi\u00e8re knew nothing about cinema. So, he had to invent his own behavior, his own way to make cinema,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux explains. \u201cAnd the first question, of course, was where do I put the camera? What do I do with the camera? What is this camera? What is specifically cinema, which is not photography, which is not painting, which is not telling a story by words.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tA Lumi\u00e8re brothers short film featuring young acrobats.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanus Films<\/p>\n
\n\tHe adds, \u201cEvery Lumi\u00e8re film is directed, and especially because they did not have any possibility to view through the camera [to see] the frame of what they were doing, they had to think about what they wanted to film. So, it\u2019s a mise-en-sc\u00e8ne; everything is directed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGeorges M\u00e9li\u00e8s, another French pioneer of cinema, attended the Lumi\u00e8res first public exhibition. M\u00e9li\u00e8s would take the artform in a more self-consciously fanciful direction \u2013 into science fiction and fantasy. The Lumi\u00e8res would remain comparatively grounded, sometimes working in what could be called actualities, other times in deliberately fictional sequences.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cM\u00e9li\u00e8s, his origin was the show, illusion, theater, magic world,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux points out. \u201cAnd of course he got the potential of how to use cinema to do his things\u2026 [Louis] Lumi\u00e8re didn\u2019t have any agenda. That\u2019s why Lumi\u00e8re made cinema for what cinema was. And that\u2019s why, how can I say, the ontologie of cinema, the essence of cinema, was right away present more in Lumi\u00e8re than in M\u00e9li\u00e8s. Which doesn\u2019t mean the M\u00e9li\u00e8s path and school is not essential as well. It is. But what I say in the film is that, of course, we have that separation made by the historian\u2026 that \u2018Lumi\u00e8re is documentary and M\u00e9li\u00e8s is fiction.\u2019 Not at all. Lumi\u00e8re is not documentary. Lumi\u00e8re is a way to get life and even to get the poetry of life. And because life is poetic, films about life are poetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThierry Fr\u00e9maux at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStephane Cardinale \u2013 Corbis\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tIn addition to serving as the Cannes Film Festival leader, Fr\u00e9maux is director of the Institut Lumi\u00e8re in Lyon. He credits the Lumi\u00e8re brothers not only for their foundational work in moviemaking but for championing exhibition of films. That would become the bedrock of the motion picture industry in the 20th century.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe two inventions of Lumi\u00e8re are cinema as an art, technique, et cetera. And the second dimension is movie theater and audience,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux argues. \u201cA film can\u2019t exist without an audience. So those two dimensions, one is totally a triumph. Cinema won. Cinema is everywhere. A post on Instagram, a video, a newsreel on TV, and so on. It\u2019s the language of cinema. It\u2019s a camera\u2026 So, cinema is everywhere, on YouTube, everywhere. Cinema in a movie theater, that is another situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStreaming poses the greatest threat to the continued viability of the exhibition business (and explains why the Cannes Film Festival insists that any film competing for the Palme d\u2019Or get a theatrical release in France, a direct retort to Netflix).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHuman beings, in the 20th century, used to go out of their home [to see] movies. Today, we all know that everywhere, and especially in [the U.S.], because of the triumph of the [streaming] platforms, there is another way to watch film,\u201d the director says. \u201cAnd we could say that in a way, it\u2019s a revenge of Thomas Edison, the individual use of watching films. And what Lumi\u00e8re wanted \u2014 to have people going out and being all together watching in a movie theater, that is a fragile situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAn early Lumi\u00e8re brothers film.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanus Films<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Lumi\u00e8re, Le Cin\u00e9ma! will be available to stream on Criterion, Fr\u00e9maux extols seeing it the way the Lumi\u00e8re brothers first projected their work. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA lot of films, when they are in good shape, restored, beautiful, they give something more,\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially Lumi\u00e8re films on the big screen, they give their complete potential\u2026 Even the oldest film, it\u2019s still very interesting to see it on the big screen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. had its Wright brothers, France its \u201cLight\u201d brothers. A few years before Orville and Wilbur piloted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,189643,189644,409,111,139,69,189645],"class_list":{"0":"post-359333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-lumiu00e8re-brothers","10":"tag-lumiu00e8re-le-cinu00e9ma","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-thierry-fru00e9maux"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}