Cinema
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
La Sortie de l'usine Lumière
Louis Lumière · 1895
Synopsis
A single fixed shot, of less than a minute, facing the gate of the Lumière factory, in the Monplaisir district of Lyon. The doors open and the staff come out, women and men mixed together, some on foot, a few others pushing a bicycle. A dog slips in among them, and in some versions a horse-drawn carriage passes through the gate in its turn.
Context
Louis Lumière shot this view in front of his family's photographic plate factory, on the chemin Saint-Victor, since renamed the rue du Premier-Film. It was used to present the cinematograph on 22 March 1895 in Paris, before the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, then appeared on the programme of the first paying screening, on 28 December 1895, at the Salon indien of the Grand Café. The scene was shot again several times until 1897: three or four versions survive, distinguished among other things by the number of horses harnessed to the carriage.
Who it is for
A single view of about fifty seconds at most, filmed without a cut, to be watched in its various restored versions, which show the same exit a few months apart.
Prizes and reception
Recorded as one of the very first views shot with the cinematograph, it was restored in 4K by the Institut Lumière.
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