Lumière, Le Cinéma!

In a great historical coincidence, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers Auguste and Louis, whose invention, the cinematograph, helped to inaugurate the most beloved art form of the last 130 years. In this magnificent documentary, Institute Lumière director Thierry Frémaux guides viewers through more than one hundred restored short films—some famous, some forgotten, some never before seen—created by Lumière and company. In the process, Frémaux illuminates how the brothers employed the camera as a creative tool as they mastered framing, staging, and subject selection for motion pictures of our world of more than a century ago, as well as the first ever fictional motion pictures. The result is not only a glorious big-screen depiction of the genesis of cinema but a profound meditation on the beautiful world captured—and the magical world imagined—by the Lumières. Narration in French with English subtitles. 

“A dazzling journey to the origins of cinema.”   –Wes Anderson