Promenade of Ostriches, Paris Botanical Gardens (1896) User Reviews

Filming a parade

[rbverhoef · 6/10 · 4 March 2005]

'Autruches', also known as 'Promenade of Ostriches, Paris Botanical Gardens' for English-speaking people, is a strange title. I only counted one ostrich, a lot of horses with a lot of people, two elephants and a camel. Most of the animals have people on them, the ostrich pulls a cart with girls in it.

The title is strange, but of course that is the least interesting here. This is another one of those early films created by one of Lumière's workers and, like all others, it has some interesting things. The fact that it is as old as it is, and being part of very early history of cinema, makes it worth watching for me. Not that a lot is happening on the screen, but for only fifty seconds I can not be bored.

Interesting Parade Footage

[Snow Leopard · 10 March 2005]

It's fortunate that this feature has been preserved, so that we can see this unusual and very interesting parade of animals. The photography is very good, and it catches a background in a park that looks very pleasant.

The ostrich gets the title role, and why not, since ostriches are unusual and attention-grabbing birds, and enjoyable to look at. But the parade also includes several other kinds of animals, domestic and exotic. While not particularly elaborate, it's undeniably interesting. Besides the nice background, the riders, some of whom are children, add to the interest of the footage.

It's nothing fancy, to be sure, but it has good cinematography, and the footage is interesting and worth seeing.

Spectacular to watch, but no substance really

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 12 October 2013]

I'm not sure how many films from before 1900 there are depicting ostriches. This may possibly even be the only one. The poor bird has to pull a carriage as if it was a horse. I really wonder what they were thinking. That moment I wished he wasn't unable to fly and could have just flown away. A pretty disgusting depiction of animal treatment. I refuse to call this elegant or appropriate and it's certainly one of Lumière's darkest moments. Not too fond of the camel action near the end either. This is a perversion of a short film and the only positive thing I see in it is deterrence. It's almost in the same league as these cock fight films by Dickson, I believe, from a couple years earlier.

The golden days before personal injury attorneys

[BrandtSponseller · 9/10 · 1 April 2005]

This is a 45-second long Lumiere Brothers actuality (Lumiere No. 4) shot in the Paris Botanical Gardens. It is a "parade" scene of a number of animals mostly pulling carts with children in them, or with children riding directly on top of them. "Promenade of Ostrich" would be more apt, as we only see one ostrich, which is followed by two mules, two ponies, a camel, and three elephants.

Here again we have the Lumiere Brothers' favored visual composition of an oblique and a processional, although in this case it runs from the mid right hand center of the frame to the lower left. The perspective isn't quite as exaggerated as in some of the Lumiere Brothers' other work, partially because the path along which the processional proceeds quickly curves out of sight.

Aside from the exoticness of the animals--which were much more exotic in Paris in the 1890s--and the novelty of children riding on or alongside them, often in precariously overcrowded positions that would now require signing 50 insurance waivers (actually they wouldn't even allow it then), the most fascinating aspect of this short is the clothing. Everyone is fully decked out in their "Sunday best". It's quite charming even if it doesn't exactly look comfortable, especially for a summer day.

Like the Lumiere Brothers short Children Digging for Clams (Enfants pêchant des crevettes, 1896), Promenade of Ostriches is particularly inviting--you wish you could hop on a camel and join the parade.

A Small Parade

[Michael_Elliott · 26 July 2015]

Promenade of Ostriches, Paris Botanical Gardens (1896)

Early French film is pretty interesting to watch today. It features a small parade as carriages are being pulled by an ostrich as well as donkeys and then we see a few people just walking. Obviously you can't watch a movie from this period and expect a "story" or anything like what we come to expect from movies today. I think what makes this film so interesting as well as others from this era is the fact that it gives you a view of something that was going on in 1896. We can watch current movies that have a setting back in these days but they're full of fake costumes and actors. Getting to see an actual film from this era allows us to see authentic costumes and events. You have to wonder what the people in this film would think if they knew that someone would be watching them nearly a hundred and twenty years later.

Fun Lumiere moment in time

[Tornado_Sam · 13 August 2017]

This is a Lumiere actuality (No. 4 to be precise) of an animal parade down a street. The ostrich steals the title, but there are plenty of other animals featured here. First there's the ostrich, followed by two mules, followed by horses, elephants and camels. It's basically a parading zoo recorded on film, and interesting in its own way. I do think this is wrongly titled because the ostrich is only onscreen for only several seconds. In fact, it makes me wonder if this film was misidentified and was actually another, different Lumiere actuality. That said, watching these moments in time are always a pleasure. Maybe they aren't interesting to the modern eye, but so long as you enjoy them, this one will prove an interesting watch.