Photographe (1895) User Reviews

Sad attempt at comedy

[jhaugh · 6/10 · 17 March 2003]

August Lumiere is being photographed in this comedy skit taken by Louis Lumiere. Auguste just can't sit still and causes the photographer to knock over his camera and break it much to his chagrin. The photographer is probably a friend of the Lumiere family and a future business associate named Felcien Trewey. The camera is obviously a stage prop. The environment, as in all Louis' films, is an outdoor setting. Even though Trewey was a vaudevillian; his acting and that of Auguste leaves a lot to be desired.

Appreciate the pioneering efforts of Lumiere 110 years ago

[Da_Lighting_Fairy · 4 March 2005]

I respect the opinion of James M. Haugh, however I don't think he realises that this film was made by a pioneer film maker 110 years ago! The only acting then was stage/live acting. They had not yet understood the difference that we now Identify as styles of acting suited to Screen, which differs from live performance. Whether or not the camera was a stage prop or not, the action of knocking it over and the reaction of the characters is stylistic of slap-stick comedy. If it isn't funny now, that doesn't mean it wasn't then. We have become immune to most visual stimuli because we have grown up with it all around us. If you look at all the latest blockbusters, they are intense in all ways these simple early films were not. This is for two reasons. First they were pioneering film in Lumiere's time, and all that was produced was experimental and considered cutting edge at the time, they did not have computers to edit the film nor the ability to produce the elaborate special effects we are now familiar with. Secondly, due to us being accustomed to modern film techniques we need more elaborate effects to achieve the same impact as what may have been received by the audiences in 1895. The example of the train film is excellent. For us to watch it, we can't imagine how audiences in Lumiere's time could have panicked. The film was silent too. Nowadays no one would panic even with the best techniques, sound effects and so on (maybe in 3D we might feel something). Think about it, try and realise how much it would take to recreate the same amount of panic in an audience with an image of a train hurtling towards the viewers in a movie theatre? Then understand that in 1895 most had never seen a movie before, they were used to different styles of entertainment and lived different lifestyles to us. Remember it was 1895, we are in 2005! I give Lumiere 10/10 for effort and remarkable skill in pioneering film making. Without people like him, we would not have made it this far in Film making.

Say cheese

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 October 2013]

This is one of Louis Lumière's shorter films from 1895, his first year in the industry. It includes two men, a photographer and the person he is about to depict. It's kinda interesting for the reason that was the time where photographs learn to move and that's what they literally do in these 15 seconds. One last check in the mirror for the man to be put on the photo, some last instructions by the photographer and here we go. Sadly, we don't see the moment the photo is actually shot, but at least we get a good look on the camera. Okay short film and at 15 seconds running time you can't really do much wrong by watching it, especially if you're into very old silent movies or short films in general like myself.

Retroactively postmodern

[BrandtSponseller · 8/10 · 7 April 2005]

In this approximately 33-second long Lumiere Brothers short (Lumiere No. 118), we see a photographer and a sitter. The sitter checks himself in the mirror and does a number of things suggesting both impatience and vanity. The photographer struggles with the situation, which ends up as a minor disaster.

This short is unusual compared to most Lumiere Brothers films in that it is one of the more conspicuously staged works. The scene played out before us is obviously fictional. "One of the more conspicuously staged works" above isn't pointless hedging. As I've noted in other reviews, almost all documentaries are staged and have elements of artificiality. It can be difficult to tell just how "real" documentaries are. The line between journalistic facts and storytelling fictions in film is much grayer than is normally supposed.

Photograph features some mild slapstick comedy which is funny now, but which was probably more effective back in 1895, when it wasn't so commonplace. The short is also notable for what we could retroactively consider a bit of postmodernist self-reference. The Lumiere Brothers are photographing the process of photographing, and in so doing, perhaps amplifying just how artificial some of their more "serious" work might have been.

The short isn't completely successful. There are occasional problems with the focus and the framing of the actors is a bit off. Still, this is an enjoyable example of the Lumiere Brothers taking a different approach.

Good Slapstick for 1895

[Snow Leopard · 10 March 2005]

For 1895, this is pretty good slapstick. It's simple, but lively, and it offers some laughs, or at least smiles, in its very short running time. It's also something of a lightly amusing commentary on the nature of photography, in its moving and non-moving forms.

The whole situation has to do with a photographer's efforts to get his subject to sit correctly so that he can take a photo. Still photographers and cinematographers have some slightly different challenges in this respect, giving the action a little extra significance.

Slapstick like this would certainly have been well-known from stage productions of the time, but performing it on film would have presented some new challenges. Any motion picture acting was still a brand new experience. In particular, for a motion picture the actors – at least in 1895 – would have had to confine all of their actions to the small, fixed camera field. The two men in this picture do that without any trace of uncertainty or awkwardness.

This is one of the very earliest 'fictional' movies, and it would be worth seeing for that reason alone. It's also not bad entertainment in itself.

The Ever Present Conflict Between Photographer and Subject

[PCC0921 · 9/10 · 11 September 2023]

Photographe (1895), or the Photographer (1895), is another Lumière film, produced in 1895, that probably wasn't released to paying audiences until early 1896. It probably kept the 1895 tag, because it was shown to a test audience that year. This also is another case, when the Lumiere brothers, made and distributed different versions of their films, in an attempt at improving upon them. There are, at least, two versions of Photographe (1895), that exist today and are available, in the 21st century, on YouTube.

Photographe (1895), is an interesting narrative drama. It is a recording of someone taking a picture of someone else. It's a recording by a new medium, that chronicles the use of an important invention, that aided in the invention of that new medium, known as the movies. There's tension and conflict in the shot, with the instrument of the story, being destroyed or broken. A photographer is trying to take a picture of an uncooperative man. At least one Lumiere brother, is one of the actors, in each version of Photographe (1895), This is pure, required viewing for Lumiere fans. It is gold for silent film fans.

9.1 (A- MyGrade) = 9 IMDB.

Early Comedy

[Tornado_Sam · 18 May 2017]

Because of how limited the filmmaking medium was at the time this short Lumière film was made, the earliest comedies were not comedies as we know them today. They were not the witty, mean-spirited humor that society finds itself using now; they were not even the amusing slapstick of Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd. For the most part, the earliest shorts that could be contributed to the genre were admittedly cheap and consisted of a single gag, often a slapstick joke that was funny then but is overwhelmingly cliche today--including such events as a gardener being sprayed by a hose, bill posters fighting over a wall, etc. None of these jokes are very creative nowadays, but at the time they were a step in the right direction.

"Photographe" is more creative in terms of joke, but like all early comedies is rather cheap in slapstick. It consists of a subject (Auguste Lumière) having his picture taken by a photographer. Unfortunately, since the camera is something the subject has never seen before (reflecting how audiences at the time reacted to the first films), he cannot help taking a look at the lens closer to see how it works. When the photographer attempts to re-pose him, he knocks over the camera and with annoyance attempts to piece it together. It is slightly amusing to see the frustrated photographer piece it back together, but in terms of laugh-out-loud comedy the film delivers none.

The basic joke was repeated at least once as with many of the earliest comedies, in Alice Guy's "At the Photographer's" (1900). Historically speaking, it is a huge improvement compared to the short documentaries being produced at the time but not watchable to the modern viewer.

Photographe (1895)

[Michael_Elliott · 23 December 2016]

Photographe (1895)

As this film opens we see a man setting up his camera. Soon another man enters the frame and gets seated so that a picture can happen but things don't go as planned. This actuality film from the Lumiere Brothers is pretty straight-forward. I'm going to guess that by 1895 most people were aware of cameras so I'm not sure showing the man doing his job was going to be ground-breaking for anyone at the time. For the most part there's nothing overly special about this film so it will mainly appeal to those fans of the Lumiere's or just old movies in general.