Auguste Lumière

A photographer has his camera all set up to take a gentleman's picture. The subject checks his face in a hand mirror, and the photographer poses him. Just as the photographer is about to take the picture, the subject gets up to look at the camera more closely. The frustrated photographer soon becomes quite impatient.

This film is a kind of anthology about Vienna, from the invention of film to the present day. The aim is to break down the usual clichéd "image of Vienna" such as that found in the traditional "Vienna Film" by juxtaposing documentary footage, newly shot material and subjective sequences created by various artists. Individual, self-contained sections of the film gain new meaning within the context of historical material. Familiar sites appear estranged when edited together with historical scenes. Other scenes appear like a persiflage or satirical. The film does not incorporate any commentary whatsoever. It is a collage of diverse materials aimed at conveying a distanced image of Vienna to the viewer

A father, a mother and a baby are sitting at a table, on a patio outside. Dad is feeding Baby her lunch, while Mum is serving tea.

A collection of short films made by the Lumiere brothers, a team of pioneering filmmakers in turn-of-the-century France, narrated by Bertrand Tavernier.

A man, holding a baby up in his hands, is standing next to a fishbowl. The baby is trying, in vain, to catch a goldfish with her bare hands.

Auguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.

Young people dive into the sea by jumping off a manmade wooden raft, while a small boat loaded with passengers passes by.

A quarrel between two women that a man attempts to separate.

A viewer can visit the whole world in a cinema or revisit historic moments. This industry was born thanks to the Lumière brothers, who synthesized research into motion reproduction at the end of the 19th century. The first public screening took place on December 28, 1895. Since then, cinema has gone from strength to strength, with the addition of sound and research into 3D cinema, for example. Louis Lumière expressed his pride in having committed this “sin of youth”.

Down the gangway, photographers leave the deck of a riverboat in large numbers.

Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.