Leaving the Factory (1895) User Reviews

Lumière

[rbverhoef · 8/10 · 4 March 2005]

On the 28th of December, 1895, in the Grand Café in Paris, film history was writing itself while Louis Lumière showed his short films, all single shots, to a paying audience. 'La Sortie des Usines Lumière' was the first film to be played and I wish I was there, not only to see the film, but also the reactions of the audience.

We start with closed doors of the Lumière factory. Apparently, since the image seems a photograph, people thought they were just going to see a slide show, not something they were hoping for. But then the doors open and people are streaming out, heading home. First a lot of women, then some men, and one man on a bike with a big dog. When they are all out the doors close again.

Whether this is the first film or not (some say 'L'Arrivée d'un Train à la Ciotat' was the first film Lumière recorded), it is an impressive piece of early cinema. Being bored by this is close to impossible for multiple reasons. One simple reason: it is only fifty seconds long. But also for people who normally only like the special effect films there must be something interesting here; you don't get to see historical things like this every day.

shows Lumieres' curiosity about world around them

[mmmuconn · 8/10 · 2 January 2003]

This one-minute film is arguably the first movie ever made. Other inventors had previously filmed actions - like Edison's motion photography of a sneeze - but the Lumiere brothers developed equipment that tremendously advanced the medium. At the time, of course, their `cinematograph' must have bewildered their peers, including their subjects. In this first instance, the brothers record employees leaving their factory, some of whom understandably struggle to hide their awareness of the camera. The Lumieres attempt to make the film more entertaining by introducing animals and a bicycle, but `La Sortie Des Usines Lumiere' doesn't nearly match the ingenuity of their later films. The most interesting aspect of this short film is the brothers' selection of a familiar working class ritual as their subject. Their choice is the initial evidence of their curiosity about all of the world's people, a quality that makes viewing their experiments immensely rewarding and fascinating today.

Rating: 8

Cinema is born

[jluis1984 · 8/10 · 24 April 2007]

Story says that on that on December 28, 1895, a small group of thirty-three people was gathered at Paris's Salon Indien Du Grand Café to witness the Cinématographe, a supposedly new invention that resulted from the work done by a couple of photographers named August and Louis Lumière. The small audience reunited that day (some by invitation, most due to curiosity) didn't really know what to expect from the show, and when a stationary photograph appeared projected on a screen, most thought that the Cinématographe was just another fancy devise to present slide-show projections. Until the photograph started to move. What those thirty-three people experienced in awe that cold day of December was the very first public screening of a moving picture being projected on a screen; history was being written and cinema as we know it was born that day.

Of the 10 short movies that were shown during that historic day, "La Sortie Des Usines Lumière" (literally "Exiting the Lumière Factory") was the very first to be screened. The film shows the many workers of the Lumière factory as they walk through the gates of the factory, leaving the building at the end of a hard day of work. While a very basic "actuality film" (movie depicting a real event), the movie took everyone in the audience by surprise, as their concept of moving pictures was limited to Edison's "Peep Show" machines (the Kinetoscope), the brothers' invention was like nothing they had seen before and so the audience stood in awe, as the people and the horses moved across the screen. The idea wasn't entirely new (Le Prince shot the first movie as early as 1888), but the way of showing the movie was simply revolutionary.

"La Sortie Des Usines Lumière" would become the first in the long series of "actuality films" that the Lumière would produce over the years. This primitive form of documentary was the brothers' favorite kind of film because they were more interested in the technological aspects of their invention than in the uses the Cinématographe could have. Despite the initial lack of enthusiasm, after the first showing the Cinématographe became a great success and "La Sortie Des Usines Lumière" quickly became an iconic image of that first screening. It definitely wasn't the first movie the brothers shot that year, and it probably wasn't the best of the 10 movies shown that day (personally I think that "L' Arroseur Arrosé" was the best of the 10); however, it is really meaningful that the very first movie was the opening of a pair of gates, as literally, this movie opened the gates to cinema as we know it. 8/10

The BIGGEST twist in movie history...

[notdempsey · 19 October 2004]

Forget the "twists" you've seen in films like Psycho (1960), The Sixth Sense(1999), and the Crying Game(1992), LEAVING THE LUMIERE FACTORY (1895) blows those plot points out of the water and takes it rightful place as the biggest shock in movie history.

December 28, 1895, The Grand Cafe' in Paris, France. Only 33 out of 100 tickets are sold to the first ever demonstration of the Lumiere Cinematograph. A jaded, French crowd sits in the theater waiting to see this mystery invention they know nothing about. The lights go down. A static, barren shot of the front door of a factory is projected onto the screen. Several seconds go by before a man stands up and shouts in disappointment, "It's just the old Magic Lantern!" (the magic lantern was a primitive slide projector for still photographs) Suddenly, the doors of the factory on screen miraculously swing open, a crowd of women pour out into the frame and a seizure of--believe it or not!--motion happens within the picture. Needless to say, the audience was caught completely off guard, and were absolutely dumbstruck.

Can you imagine it?! The audience had co clue that the picture would move! They must have went bonkers! It would be like you watching Jerry Maguire, and then Tom Cruise walks right out of the screen and sits down next to you!

When those French ladies opened the doors to the Lumiere Factory, they were also opening the doors to a whole new world of art and entertainment!

And so it begins.......

[thomasgouldsbrough · 7/10 · 22 February 2022]

Even as the first film to come to cinema, it's still better than a lot of the films that come out today. The origin story of this film is completely fascinating. An unknowing audience attend the cinema assuming it will be a series of still images, until they get hit with the greatest twist of all time - a moving picture. The 33/100 who went to see this film are some of the luckiest people of all time, just imagine their shock.......

Sisters Weren't Doing It For Themselves In Those Days

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 25 June 2013]

People leave their place of work at the Lumiere factory and go home

That's it nothing else to tell . There's a certain novelty value to this very short film and you have to keep that in mind in the context it was made . It seems strange nowadays in an era of ipods and iphones where anyone possessing one can do an ad hoc sex tape or film footage of a gun battle in Afghanistan or indeed watch a short ground breaking like this on youtube . Even stranger to think that this was the first film that people actually paid to see at a cinema , but again you have to remember the novelty value of moving pictures

One thing I did notice is how plump the woman appear in the film . That said in those days women around the world had a very rotten life as little more than baby factories . They were little more than serfs , wouldn't have careers and wouldn't have had the vote either . Say what you like about the 20th Century but time has improved the lives of women in Western secular democracy . Quite rightly too and we should feel a great deal of pity for the women in this film

A sense of time and place

[jhaugh · 10/10 · 27 February 2003]

All films made before 1912 really need to be viewed with a sense of time and place.

In 1894, the Lumiere-family men [father: Antoine (1840-1911), sons: Auguste and Louis] owned and managed a factory that manufactured photographic plates and paper. Not a small enterprise; the factory had more than 200 employees who received pension and social security benefits - innovative for that time. It was located at Montplaisir in the suburbs of Lyon, France. What caused Louis Lumiere to become interested in building a Cinematagraph, in 1894, remains open for speculation. My suggestion is that the appearance of the Edison organization's Kinetoscope (peep-show machine), in Paris during the fall of 1894, provided the catalyst.

W.K.L. Dickson, of Edison's staff, invented a motion-picture camera about the size of an upright piano that was patented in February 1893. It was electrically operated (using power from from heavy storage batteries. This massive machine pumped celluloid film strip (newly developed by the Eastman company) past a lens at about 40 frames-per-second (fps). It was ensconced, as an almost immovable object, in the "Black Maria" (essentially the first movie studio.) The Kinetescope machines showed staged presentations (less than one-minute long)that were filmed in this studio.

During 1894, Louis Lumiere applied himself to the task of inventing a moving-picture camera. He had determined that, even at 16 fps on celluloid film, the persistence-of-vision of the human eye/brain would allow for normal motion to be perceived. His camera, dubbed the Cinematograph, was about the size of a large shoe box and was provided with a detachable film magazine that provided storage for enough film to make a shoot last about one minute when it was had cranked past the lens at 16 fps.

The size and light weight, of the camera (it could be converted into a printer or a projector by the addition of a light source) made it portable enough that it could be taken to any location to record an event (provided there was enough sunlight available.) In the spring of 1895, Louis filmed: trick-riding by some cavalry men; a house on fire with firemen arriving and dousing the engulfed building with water; and a number of other scenes in and around Lyon. Using a Molteni bulb, he turned the camera into a projector and presented his films to scientists assembled in the reception room of the Revue Generales des Science. The images were projected on a screen five-meters distant from the lens. The screen was stretched in a doorway between two rooms. At a meeting of professional photographers, that same year, Louis photographed the arriving delegates and the same evening showed them motion pictures of their arrival.

With accolades from both the scientific and photographic communities, Louis decided to have a public exhibition of his invention by the end of the year. Since each of his films would be about one-minute long, he would need at least a dozen films to make a good presentation. For one of these films he set up his camera at the entrance to his factory, photographing the egress of employees at quitting-time.

The public venue chosen by Antoine - who offered himself as the "fairground barker" for the Cinematograph - was the Salon Indien of the Grand Cafe on the boulevard des Capucines in Paris. It was a wintry Saturday night on 28 December, 1895. As the first audience sat, they were presented with a projected view of the exterior of the Lumiere factory (with closed gates.) Some were chagrined that they were just going to see a routine slide show of Lumiere photographs. But then the crank on the camera/projector was turned and movement began. Louis had an innate sense for motion picture taking. This film has a beginning, a middle and an end. In the beginning, the doors are opened and people begin to leave their workplace; during the middle, the people stream out - with many trying to ignore the camera, and the cameraman, as they seem to be happy to leave a day of labor behind them. At the end, the gates to the factory are being closed.

And this was the first film projected for the entertainment of the general public.

Another Lumier Video

[jack_o_hasanov_imdb · 6/10 · 2 October 2022]

Another Lumier video. Yes, this is a documentary. When I watched the movie, it surprised me that there were crowded work-outs even back then. It's like a view from the "Elmler Academiyasi" or "Koroghlu" subway station when scools and univercity begin. Ha - ha -ha 😁. Frankly, if we evaluate it as a movie or a documentary, we can not. But when you realize that it's just an image from the 19th century from a historical point of view, you realize that this is not an empty thing, but something historical and important. But I'm sure there will be people who say, what the .... is this, ?! I think movie lovers come across these movies during research, otherwise I don't think normal movie watchers know about this movie.

A window into another time.

[Anonymous_Maxine · 10/10 · 22 November 2002]

The appeal of ancient films like this one is that you get to see an actual moving image of life over 100 years ago. Here are a lot of people leaving a factory, all of them dead by now and none of them even remotely aware of the magnitude of the invention that they are walking before. I was shocked to read one reviewer call this film as boring as home videos today, and at least one other mistakenly identified it as the first film ever made (it was the first film made at the rate of 16 frames per second, rather than the then-normal 46 frames per second).

Sure, all you see is a lot of people filing out of a building and passing before the cinematograph on their way home from work, but this is a curiosity piece for dozens of reasons, not the least of which is that it was the first film made by the Lumiére brothers, who probably had a stronger impact on the development of the cinema than any other individual or group of individuals in history.

The film that started cinematography

[Zeyders · 6/10 · 27 September 2022]

On December 28, 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumière demonstrated their invention, which was better than Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, in Paris at the Grand Café, 14 Boulevard des Capucines, with the world's first public commercial film screening for a small audience, which became the official birthday of cinema. The world's youngest art at the moment. It was with the screening of "Workers Walking Out of the Lumiere Factory" that the first 50-second films began. This invention not only allowed films to be viewed on the screen (previously, the kinetoscope allowed only one person to look through the eyepiece, not the most convenient way), but it was also able to combine three processes in one device: filming, copying and projection.

Today it is difficult to decide what kind of rating to give to the first documentary in history. The very appearance of the film is in principle already a 10/10, when there were absolutely no rules and other things like how to make movies. But if you look at it from today's viewing perspective (as we always do), I would give it a 6/10 as a mark of respect. They could have captured something more interesting, like their film "Arrival of a Train" than just the workers coming out, although the very gesture of documenting their people has its place.

Here they come

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 6 September 2013]

A worker opens the gate and here they come. Dozens female workers with elegant dresses and even more elegant hats heading out, occasionally interrupted by male workers and dogs who wouldn't want to wait until it's their turn. They're chatting, laughing and just having a great time in general. Hardly any of the girl carry handbags and, lets be honest, when do you see a woman without a handbag on the street these days. It has turned into a must-have accessory for the majority of girls already.

Anyway, this one is another very short and very early film by the Lumière brothers. Right before the curtain falls, we see another canine, or maybe the one from a few seconds earlier, running towards the closing gate. Maybe his master is doing an extra-shift?

And here we are, 111 years later. Did M. Lumiére really imagine his invention would lead to this?

[atwarwiththebarmyarmy · 10/10 · 1 September 2006]

You're using the IMDb.

You've given some hefty votes to some of your favourite films.

It's something you enjoy doing.

And it's all because of this. Fifty seconds. One world ends, another begins.

How can it not be given a ten? I wonder at those who give this a seven or an eight... exactly how could THE FIRST FILM EVER MADE be better? For the record, the long, still opening shot is great showmanship, a superb innovation, perfectly suited to the situation. And the dog on the bike is a lovely touch. All this within fifty seconds.

The word genius is often overused.

THIS is genius.

Cinema begins.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 6/10 · 2 December 2021]

'Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory (1895)' is exactly what it says on the tin. It's, essentially, a window into the past, a glimpse at a crowd of people, each with lives as intricate as our own, who lived over 125 years ago. Apparently, this was one of the very first films to be publicly shown, so its importance is pretty much impossible to overstate. Without this, we arguably wouldn't have any of the films that followed (though one could posit that someone would have invented cinema eventually regardless). It's refreshing, too, that such an important piece of cinema is entirely devoid of any problematic elements; there's no need to use its importance as a defence against, for example, racism. It's just a nice, simple short film depicting a ton of people leaving a building, their clothing and attitudes offering just a hint of the differing personalities on display. It has a certain charm to it and is practically a must of fans of cinema. Having said all that, it isn't exactly entertaining in the traditional sense. 6/10.

Lumiere's first film to be viewed by the public...

[kobe1413 · 1/10 · 1 October 2014]

Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere place their camera outside of the Lumiere family factory. We see the doors of the factory open and its workers begin to file out. Some of the workers acknowledge the family by staring at it and others move along without noticing it.

The Lumiere Brothers were the first filmmakers of France and, along with the Edison group and Birt Acres and Robert W. Paul, were the helped introduce the world to moving film. The Lumieres were more interested in filming real people in real situations than the Edison, who were quickly interested in filming narrative scenes.

YOU WILL LIKE THIS FILM IF YOU LOVED: "The Sea (1895)" IF YOU HATED: "Norma Rae"

Firsts: Actuality of Cinema

[Cineanalyst · 1 December 2007]

This 50-or-so-seconds-long film has held a special place in movie history for being the first of ten 50-or-so-seconds-long films to be shown to a paying audience at the Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895. This wasn't the first commercial exhibition of cinema; the Skladanosky brothers, for example, had accomplished the feat with their Bioscope nearly two months prior. Still earlier, Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat projected films to a paying audience as early as September 1895. There were also the Lathams, whose experiments in projection were aided by William K.L. Dickson, who was still employed by Thomas Edison at the time. Some historians have made even earlier claims for others. If animated pictures on discs or other non-celluloid materials are included, another host of precedents can be added. Nevertheless, this showing by the Lumière brothers changed the world. It and subsequent presentations were exceedingly popular, and the projection of the films and the films themselves displayed technological and aesthetic advancement over previous equipment and pictures.

We now know that the Lumière brothers made at least three versions of "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory", because these exist today. Until recently, however, it was generally believed that there was only one version. In the 1940s, Louis Lumière claimed to have made it once; he also misremembered the approximate date he filmed it. He likely made the three films separately between 19 May 1895 and August 1986. The brothers projected the first version (the one-horse version) at their first private screening on 22 May 1895. The second version (two horses) is the one that appeared on the screen on 28 December 1895. The final version (with no horses) was long believed (still confused to be by some) to be the first film and is still more widely distributed than the others. (For all three versions with the best quality transfer available, see "The Lumière Brothers' First Films" (1996).)

The light weight of the Lumière Cinématographe, as opposed to the bulky and generally immobile Kinetograph, allowed the Lumière brothers to create a new genre with their actuality films (a genre that, at least for a while, was probably more popular than the earliest fictional story films). Moreover, other advancements made for crisper and steadier films (although contemporaries complained of excessive flickering). The Lumière brothers would consequently be the firsts to largely decide the framing for their subjects. In this one of workers leaving the factory, the framing is essentially a perpendicular long take of the action. It's not quite as interesting as, say, the diagonal framing in "L'Arrivée d'un train" (1896), but the action here doesn't call for it. The camera is also stationary, but one of the Lumière filmmakers, Alexandre Promio, would change that by the following year, such as in "Panorama du Grand Canal vu d'un bateau".

"Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory" is the first so-called "actuality" film, a proto-documentary genre of early cinema. It is simply a film, as its title implies, of workers exiting the Lumière photographic factory in Lyons to passing out of frame to either side. Its major spectacle is that there's movement--projected on a screen. These actuality films were very popular, for the natural and realistic settings, the variety of subjects that were available, as well as the superior picture quality of the Cinématographe films. This prompted the Edison Company to create their own actuality films, in addition to improving their camera and, eventually, moving to the projection of cinema. Other early filmmakers, like Robert W. Paul and Georges Méliès, would also begin making films within the actuality genre. Yet, today, it seems apparent that this film and many other so-called actualités are directed--events have been manipulated. The camera is not an invisible recorder; it influences. "L'Arrivée d'un train" and some other actuality films do appear to be undirected, though; some even achieve the metaphoric invisibility of the camera (Louis Le Prince's "Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge" (1888) appears to accomplish it).

Reportedly (including by Méliès), when this film was projected to audiences, the projectionist would temporarily freeze the first frame and then amaze audiences by running the motion picture. Méliès later said of this: "I must admit we were all stupefied as you can understand. I immediately said, 'That's for me. What an extraordinary thing.'"

On an interesting side note, the first projectionist of these showings was Charles Moisson, who also introduced the Lumière's to film, helped them invent the Cinématographe and made some of the company's earlier films. With Francis Doublier (who claims to appear in "Leaving the Lumière Factory"), they photographed the coronation of Tsar Nikolas II, which ended in tragedy when a stand gave way and thousands of people were trampled to death in an ensuing panic. Russian authorities confiscated the film, and it was never seen again. On the issue of actuality films, this was a dramatic example of the camera as a relative non-participant of events.

Anyhow, this film, "Leaving the Lumière Factory", is an important landmark in film history, for not only introducing many to cinema, but also for introducing, through their actuality films, a new way of seeing. Within and without the frame, the gates were opened.

(Note: This is the fifth in a series of my comments on 10 "firsts" in film history. The other films covered are Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888), Blacksmith Scene (1893), Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895), The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895), L'Arroseur arose (1895), L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (1896), Panorama du Grand Canal vu d'un bateau (1896), Return of Lifeboat (1897) and Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900).)

Disappointing compared to his later work

[Grand · 7/10 · 15 August 1999]

Of course, he did have to INVENT EVERYTHING about cinematography, film directing, etc. before he could make classics like "The Gardner," so I suppose he may be forgiven this initial excursion into mere sociological documentary. Today we call them "home movies," and they are just as boring now as this one is

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 12 March 2012]

The Lumiére Brothers from France are often credited as the ones who made the first ever motion picture, and this is often referred to as the first ever motion picture seen by cinema audiences. It is a less than one minute single shot of the hundreds of men and women, mostly women, leaving the Lumiére filmmaking factory after a day's work. It is simply seen these days as the revolution of filmmaking, but it is a question, what would the world be like without films? This film gave way for the many other revolutions that followed, obviously longer films came, and they gave us sound, colour, stars, special effects, 3D and much more besides. For the fact that this is the first ever film to have existed in history, it is a most watchable black and white silent documentary film. Very good!

the really 1st movie

[leplatypus · 10/10 · 24 August 2019]

When i reviewed the 1896 short by the same Lumières Brothers entitled -L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat - i believed that it was their first one because medias always depict it like this in France (Cocorico!).

BUT when i watched the documentaries for Coppola's Dracula, they clearly told a simple truth: Cinéma was invented the same year as Dracula (understand the same year that Bram Stoker released his Dracula novel) and so the starting point in filmmaking history is 1895 (for a french at least because anglo-saxons would say it was before with Edison but now it's an endless debate i don't want to enter!)...

In addition, the commemorative movie - Lumière et compagnie - produced 100 years after while using the same camera (in which David Lynch shot a really great sequence) was released in 1995 and not in 1996 or 1994 ....

Indeed, this short has been filmed in march 1895 and screened for an audience in Grand Café at Paris, 28 December.

My feelings watching those 40 seconds are:

1) in my country, we are told in school that women started working during the WWII and again more generally in the Baby boom after it: here, 50 years before, nearly all workers are WOMEN! So this movie is a good piece for Capitalism history and its untold facts because at this time,, this was wild capitalism for which everybody was working (men, wome, children, elderly...) with no workers rights or regulations (ex: legal duration of work)...

2) I noticed that the workers were neatly dressed with everybody with hat... in fact, if you research, you'll learn that this short has several cuts (or editions, versions) and the one I saw is not really the end of a day work because it was shot a Sunday with the nice clothes workers wore to go the church...

So this really 1st movie illustrates with brillance what's the power of this new medium: giving illusion: the image can be deceiving, it can be the truth but it may not and from 1895 to now, we must be cautious in giving them sense...

The point is not `is it entertaining?'

[jraf · 10/10 · 17 March 2002]

How can't you rate this movie with 10/10? I admit to say that this movie is not very entertaining but the goal is not to tell you a story but History! This is the first `real' movie of cinema history (`le Prince de Galles' was first but it was not technically perfect enough…) and it has an undoubtedly huge international value. These people that you can see finishing their working day in the movie had the chance to participate to a historic moment, becoming the first persons to be able to see themselves moving! And above all the shot is a beautiful shot! And it's very moving when you think about the first persons to have seen that! What a moment! Historic for science first (because the Lumiere brothers first invented the cinematographe for scientific reasons) and for art later. A movie to venerate!

Film as panopticon.

[the red duchess · 10/10 · 30 August 2000]

The first film ever made. Workers streaming from a factory, some cycling, most walking, moving right or left. Along with Melies, the Lumieres are both the starting point and the point of departure for cinema - with Melies begins narrative fiction, cinema, fantasy, artifice, spectacle; with the Lumieres pure, unadorned, observation. The truth. There are many intellectuals who regret the ossification of cinema from the latter into the tired formulae of the former.

But consider this short again. There is nothing 'objective' about it. The film is full of action - a static, inhuman scene burst into life, activity, and the quiet harmony of the frame is ruptured, decentred from the back to right or left (but never, of course, the front, where the camera is). And yet the camera stands stock still, contains the energy, the possible subversion, subordinates it to its will. The cinematograph may be a revolutionary invention, but it will be used for conservative purposes - to map out the world, edit it, restrict it, limit it.

worse is the historical reality of the film. These factory workers are Lumiere employees. The bosses are spying on their workers, the unseen eye regarding his faceless minions. The film therefore describes two types of imprisonment. Behind the gates, the workers are confined in their workplace. The opening of the gate seems to be an image of freedom, escape, but they face another wall, the fourth wall, further confining them. The first film is also the first example of CCTV surveillance, an image of unseen, all-seeing authority entrapping its servants. A frightening, all too prophetic movie.

A Classic That Never Gets Old

[Snow Leopard · 8 March 2005]

For almost anyone with an interest in the earliest motion pictures, watching this footage of workers leaving the Lumière factory never gets old. Its historical significance, as the first movie that Louis Lumière showed at the first public demonstration of his cinematograph, would certainly make it well worth remembering for that reason alone. But beyond Lumière's visionary and technical abilities, he also had a knack for choosing material for his features that was interesting in itself.

This particular subject could not have been more appropriate for his first public presentation. The seemingly simple footage is almost a microcosm of the new world created by cinema. The widely varying reactions of the various workers (not to mention the occasional dog) contain almost every common reaction to the camera: some are curious and don't mind showing it, some are curious and pretend not to be, some are a little uncomfortable, some seem to be fascinated by having their picture taken. With the 'cast' as large as it is, you can watch the film a good number of times and still not lose interest.

Beyond that, the way that the camera field is set up shows an innate sense of the value of movement, particularly movement towards the camera, in holding the attention of the audience. Some of Lumière's best films made further use of this idea.

In one very short movie, this film preserves an important step in cinema history, while also containing material that, in a sense, portrays and foresees many of the future effects of the Lumière brothers' invention. That we can experience both, any time that we view this footage of these long-past men and women and their honest reactions to the camera, is still fascinating.

Stunning

[skelter_68 · 10/10 · 7 May 2004]

What can i say about the first film ever?

You can't rate this, because it's not supposed to be entertaining. But if you HAVE to rate it, you should give it a 10. It is stunning to see moving images from the year 1895. This was one of the most important movies in history. I wonder how it was to be one of the people who saw the first movie ever!

The First.

[PCC0921 · 10/10 · 8 May 2022]

This film is considered as being, the very first, commercially exhibited film in motion picture history. There were some private screenings of experimental processes, as far back as 1888, but this was the first film footage shown to a paying crowd, thus the art of film was born and so was the film industry. Anything before this, could be considered home movies or experimentational growing pains, that were needed, to get us to this starting point, when film became a medium. The Pioneering Era begins here, as the motion pictures (moving pictures/the movies), are born. While watching this film, La sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon (1895), all I could think about was having the gift of, seeing people, animals and things, captured on film, as if I was looking out the window of a time machine. It is the opinion of most, if not all, as being the first movie ever exhibited. In my book, of course, it deserves an A+, because it truly is the best film ever made to this point in film history. Plus, its only a minute long, so give it an A+. You have to.

Update: September, 2023 - It turns out, that there are three versions of this film. The Lumiere brothers, would reshoot their films, a couple of times, in order to, improve upon them. They would than release those different versions, over the next year or two. In this case, with Leaving the Factory (1895), the first version was released at this festival. This practice by the brothers showed, that right off the bat, pioneering filmmakers, believed in the multiple takes system and the idea of reshoots. The problem for film fans, was the different versions were released all over the world, so they got lost to time, were mixed up and are hard to find now. I do believe all three versions of this film can be found online, but sometimes, that luck doesn't always pan-out for all the Lumiere brother's films.

9.9 (A+ MyGrade) = 10 IMDB.

cinema begins

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 28 October 2017]

The Lumière brothers initiated commercial cinema with "La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon" (alternately called "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory", "Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory" and "Exiting the Factory" in English). The brothers made what they call actuality cinema: minute-long documentaries about mundane topics. In this case we see a bunch of people leaving a factory. The plot won't look like anything spectacular to people in the 21st century, but you have to realize what things were like when it debuted. To see a moving image was something new. Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" focused on cinema's infancy (and showed how the clip depicting a train's arrival scared people because they thought that the train was going to hit them). Sure enough, cinema became the 20th century's dominant entertainment.

Not any sort of masterpiece, but worth seeing for the historical context.

Historic French leaving work action

[mjc8 · 16 August 2001]

This is it!! if your looking for a thrilling few minutes of the French leaving work then it does not get any better than this.Action to look out for includes,

French woman walking at the screen, French bloke wobbling on his bike, The closing of the gates cliff-hanger Finale.

Oh and its maybe the most important few minutes in the history of cinema.