Autour d'une cabine (1894) User Reviews

And the Animation Starts

[Michael_Elliott · 14 August 2015]

Autour d'une cabine (1894)

Émile Reynaud directed this extremely early animated film that's certainly entertaining on a number of levels. The story is pretty simple as we see a couple people swimming before getting on a boat. If you're looking for a well-detailed plot then you're not going to find it here. This film is obviously interesting because of how early it was made and by the fact that it was one of the first animated films.

As far as the images goes, I thought for the most part they were extremely good with a few sequences that really stand out. The best for me was the scene where the two ladies are in the water and they slide down in it to get more water on them. I thought this looked terrific as did the scene where the boat comes out with them on it. Again, there's certainly nothing here that matches Walt Disney but you have to respect that this here is where everything started.

The world's first animation director

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 October 2013]

Even if Émile Reynaud's career only went for seven films and less than five years, it's worth taking a look at. In this two-minute short film we witness a day at the beach. First some people jump in the water, then a well-dressed lady meets a man and shortly afterward another lady and the two take a swim and finally some boat action.

It didn't appeal to me as much as Reynaud's earlier work "Pauvre Pierrot" and it's occasionally difficult to understand what exactly is going on as the animation is obviously still very early and unrefined, but the historic context surely makes it worth a watch for animation lovers like myself and those interested in the very early years of movies.

Théâtre Optique

[ghelling-34336 · 8/10 · 12 March 2019]

A pre-cinema display of what was to become animation. Reynaud's invention and use of the Théâtre Optique impressed early viewers enough to leave a significant mark and he has become one of the key innovators of the entertainment industry. This brief scene has minor plot, but advancement and character development is present.

First author of animated movies

[vukelic-stjepan · 3/10 · 17 January 2017]

Émile Reynaud is author of first few animated movies. His first animated movies is Pauvre Pierrot and this movie came after Pauvre Pierrot but I didn't see progress in animation, furthermore, this movie is far behind Pauvre Pierrot for several reasons. First, story is not interesting, second, it is difficult to follow characters in this movie. I watch 2 times and I didn't figure out that this are same persons in all scenes. I was thinking that these are different characters. Pauvre Pierrot has interesting story with few comic moments, but this movies doesn't have anything like that. But it is worth to see because it is one of earliest animated movies, and lasts for only 2 minutes, and anyone has 2 minutes to watch this.

Hand-Painted Animated Film - 1894

[PCC0921 · 8/10 · 12 September 2023]

Autour d'une cabine (1894), is also known as, Autour d'une cabine ou Mésaventures d'un copurchic aux bains de mer (1894). It is known in English as, Around a Cabin or the Misadventures of a Couple at the Seaside (1894). It sounds like the filmmaker, Émile Reynaud, did charge admission for his shows, that began in 1894, but the screenings really didn't get rolling until 1895. He probably improved upon the film with its re-screenings, until his show ended in 1900. Reynaud hand-cranked reels of hand-painted film cells and projected the image onto a screen. This animated comedy, may not, totally fit the description of a motion picture experience, but for film history's sake, it is important to see Autour d'une cabine (1894).

The plot for this two minute film, is an interesting topic, for being one of the first ever. It has a beach background, with an appealing oceanside view and changing huts for the swimmers. A woman is trying to enjoy her day at the beach with her dog and garners the attention of a man, who gets caught peeping into her changing tent, by another person. Once the man is chased away, the two remaining beach-goers enjoy a swim, while a sailboat flows by. Autour d'une cabine (1894), is a history-making moment in film history. The only difference this film has from normal films, is the fact, that there is no recorded image on the film, only paint. The animation sequences, also showed the humor the French had, all the way back in the mid-1890s.

8.5 (B+ MyGrade) = 8 IMDB.

A bad pre-cinema antique, with a strange strength!

[1qatreh · 2/10 · 24 April 2020]

This short antique animation does not have any theme, but has a bad plot (or, to better say: a bad sketch), and a rather memorable form. To declare the ending by using a boat's sail, is actually the most memorable point of this animation, to me.

Animation here a little more flowing

[Tornado_Sam · 2 May 2018]

"Autour d'une cabine" is Emile Reynaud's second surviving short film, made two years after "Pauve Pierrot" and is again animated. Yes, animated! Reynaud may have made only 4 animated movies in his whole lifetime, but this man made an amazing contribution to film long before J. Stuart Blackton came into the picture. His two movies are colorful and humorous and tell stories! Here, the story is simpler than "Pauve Pierrot" and features a man and woman playing tricks on each-other. After the woman finally gets the man to leave her alone she gets in the water with her other friend, they play and later get on a boat.

While this movie is shorter and far more simplistic than "Pauve Pierrot" (being only two minutes long when the latter was four, and there being no cutting closer to the figures) I think the animation looks better here. The part at the beginning in which a woman dives into the water looked excellent because it was more flowing and not jerky. In fact, the way the film is animated here is by dissolves, one figure dissolving away and shows up in a different spot. This isn't how animation is done today, but it appears to work better than the animation in "Pauve Pierrot" so I suppose it's a step up in that sense.

All in all, a must see if you're an animation buff. While primitive looking, it needs to be respected as one of the first animated movies and is worth a watch for that reason.

terrific

[catpantry · 10/10 · 31 January 2020]

A guy wears a belt on his forehead!! The belt strap stretches hundreds of kilometers out of the ocean onto dry surface where a woman tugs the piss out of it when she takes the trash out or lays on top of a car and sits up of out of an impulse. At one point the woman had a sudden thought and aggressively turned a steering wheel which pulled on the belt strap and it forced the mans head down leftward into a one pound flower.