The Lumiere brothers are people whose names are shrouded in so many legends and tales that it is very difficult to figure out where is truth and where is fiction. But we will try.
In October 1862, the eldest of the brothers, Lumiere Auguste Louis Marie Nicolas, was born in Besançon. He was born to the inventor Antoine Lumiere, who made a small fortune in the production and sale of photographic products.
Two years later, in October 1864, the youngest of the Lumières, Louis Jean, was born. From childhood, the character and inclinations of the boys were different. Quiet and sickly, Louis spent a lot of time at home with his father, doing creative work. He loved painting, sculpture and music. Then he adopted his father's passion for invention.
Shy and inquisitive, Auguste was fond of photography and medicine. Later, he will not only join his father's business, but also open his own clinic and pharmacological laboratory.
Beginning of the brothers' photography career
In 1882, the brothers' father bought a large plot in Lyon, on which he built a factory for the production of photographic plates. At the very beginning of her work, Antoine almost suffereda bankruptcy that was averted thanks to Louis. He invented new photographic plates, qualitatively different from the previous ones. His Blue Labels gave him the ability to take quick photos. The old silver bromide emulsion technology made photographing extremely long.
Gradually, Louis and Auguste Lumiere formed a real tandem, where each was assigned a specific role. Inventive Louis was in charge of the production process, and Auguste was assigned the role of manager, which he did very well.
Invention of the cinematograph
Finally, in 1889, my father brought from Paris a new invention of Thomas Edison - a kinetoscope with a set of twelve tiny films. It was a bulky structure that allowed you to watch movies only by yourself, looking through a small window in the case.
On its basis, Lumiere Louis Jean created a new device - a cinematograph. It was a real portable studio. The device made it possible to film, print positives and demonstrate video. It was only necessary to open the door and install a strong light source behind the device. The film was moved and a moving image was created on the screen.
That's why it would be correct to consider Edison the founder of cinema. The brothers recognized his superiority in the invention of the Kinetoscope and even paid him ransom when they showed their films in the USA.
It is worth saying that at first the Lumières considered photography to be the main business of their lives, and they treated cinema with some disdain and did not see it asfuture. Despite this, they continued to work on technology, because they were businessmen and were not used to missing out, and cinema was just beginning to come into vogue.
According to contemporaries, Louis and Auguste Lumiere were inseparable, they worked fifteen hours a day, but still met every morning for breakfast. Even the marriage of Auguste to Margaret Winkler in 1893 did not change anything in their relationship, and a year later Louis married Margaret's sister, Rose.
First screening
And so, on December 28, 1895, in Paris, having filmed the Grand Café at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris for thirty francs a day, they staged the world's first public film show. The entrance ticket cost one franc. The brothers organized a cinema hall in the basement and one of them, turning the handle of the cinematograph, projected the image onto a white screen. By the way, Louis also invented perforating the edges of the film.
Audience could see the first ten films of the Lumiere brothers, no more than a minute long each. Contrary to popular belief, the famous "Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat" was not among them, as it did not come out until January of the following year.
First motion pictures
The number of pictures shown this evening included one of the most famous films of the brothers - "Exit of the workers from the Lumiere factory". There are three officially recognized versions of this film, which speaks of the serious and creative approach of the brothers to the filming process. Moreover, all three versions weredemonstrated to the public, as the newspaper reports say.
According to experts, all three versions were filmed on the same day, this is evidenced by the peculiarities of the lighting and the location of the shadows. This film can be considered the first in the history of cinema, since it was first shown to the public on March 22, 1895 at a conference of French photographic industrialists.
In the list of films of the first film screening there was a picture “Sprinkled Sprinkler”, which can be considered the first comedy staged film. There is a version that the plot of the film is taken from life. So making fun of the old gardener, stepping on the hose, was loved by the younger brother of the Lumières - Edward, who died tragically in the First World War.
By the way, it is possible that the same gardener is on the screen, because the brothers did not waste time looking for actors for their films and involved in them everyone who could fit the role: servants, workers of their factory, their and other people's children.
In the picture “Breakfast of the Baby”, shown on this day, Auguste's daughter, Andre, participates. In 1918, at the age of 24, she would die of influenza.
Further development of cinema and photography
On the first night, the brothers only sold thirty-five tickets. Not much, considering the costs, but the interest of the public grew rapidly, film screenings became regular, and within three months the brothers were earning two thousand francs a night.
To revive the atmosphere of silent films, the Lumières began to invite tapers: pianists and saxophonists to accompany the film screening with musical works,appropriate to the movie.
The Grand Cafe became a cinema, and the brothers sent their projectionists to Europe to promote cinematography and shoot new interesting stories about world attractions and world events, such as the coronation of Nicholas II.
The brothers themselves went on a tour of Japan, India and China. And by 1903, the brothers' cinema library already included more than two thousand films. After the Second World War, the collection, including the first films of the Lumiere brothers, passed to the French Academy of Sciences.
Louis worked not only on the image, but also on the color. Thanks to his inventions, color photographs have come down to us, preserving documentary evidence of life at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
Departure from cinema
Auguste was the first to leave the joint family business and take up medicine in earnest. His last film - "The Passion of Jesus" - Louis made in 1898, and after that he was engaged exclusively in the production of film equipment. A few years later he sold the patents and devoted himself to research work in the field of color and three-dimensional cinema.
Photography and cinema are not the only areas of application for the brothers' talents. In World War I, they made many inventions in the field of medicine. Louis was seriously engaged in prosthetics, and Auguste invented special dressings for healing burns and wounds.
Louis died on June 6, 1948 at the age of eighty-three. Auguste died on April 10, 1954 at the age of ninety-one.
Lumiere Institute
In 1975, the huge Lumiere factory was almostcompletely destroyed. There was only one hangar left, the same famous one, from which the workers came out in the first film of the brothers. The authorities paid attention to the structure. The hangar began to be considered a historical monument and was used as the basis for the construction of a large complex dedicated to the Lumiere family.
The vast territory where the factory buildings were once located is now occupied by the Lumiere Institute. It hosts festivals, creative meetings and master classes, shows modern films by talented directors, as well as old films, including “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station”. The complex includes the Lumiere Brothers Museum, a park, a cinema, and the School of Louis Lumiere. The Institute has become one of the main attractions of Lyon.
Lumiere Film Awards
In 2009, as part of the Lumiere Brothers Film Festival, held annually in Lyon, the Institute established the Lumiere Prize. It is awarded to people who have made a significant contribution to the development of world cinema. Thierry Fremaux, director of the Lumiere Institute, believes that over time this award will become an alternative to the Nobel in the field of cinematography.
