Partie de cartes (1895)

Director:

Louis Lumière

Release Date:

July 1896 (Finland)

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Plot:

Two men play cards, as a third watches and a waiter brings drinks. The third man pours drinks as the waiter laughs.

Cast

Antoine Féraud

Also Known As:

Card Game
Game of Cards (UK) (informal English title)
Partie d'écarté (France) (alternative spelling)
The Messers. Lumière at Cards (USA)

Runtime:

1 min

Country:

France

Color:

Color (hand-colored) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Lumière

Movie Connections:

Featured in La magie Méliès (1997) (TV)

Old men playing cards

A rather unpromising subject matter is made enjoyable here thanks to the interaction of the four characters within a narrow frame. The camera focuses on a card table - and it is one of only a few early films in which the immobility of the camera is not glaringly obvious - at which are seated three grand gentlemen, one of whom is the Lumiere brother's father and the other Felicien Trewey, another pioneering figure in the birth of film. Two of the men play cards while another pours drinks as an attendant waiter looks on. Not a lot more happens, but the picture captures an atmosphere of relaxation also evident in Repas de Bebe.