Lumière and Company (1995)
"Lumière et compagnie" (original title)

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were ... See full summary »

Directors:

Theodoros Angelopoulos, Vicente Aranda,

Writer:

Philippe Poulet (original idea)

Stars:

Merzak Allouache, Jeffe Alperi, Pernilla August

Cast

Credited cast:
Merzak Allouache	...	Himself
Jeffe Alperi	...	Policeman (segment "David Lynch")
Theodoros Angelopoulos	...	Himself (as Théo Angelopoulos)
Romane Bohringer	...	(segment "Claude Miller")
Michele Carlyle	...	(segment "David Lynch")
Youssef Chahine	...	Himself
Lou Chapiteau	...	(segment "Claude Miller") (as sa petite fille Lou)
Marc Chapiteau	...	(segment "Claude Miller")
Antoine Duléry	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Pascal Duquenne	...	(segment "Jaco Van Dormael")
Bruno Ganz	...	Damiel (segment "Wim Wenders")
Charles Gérard	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Ticky Holgado	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Isabelle Huppert	...	Récitante: Segment Abbas Kiarostami (voice)
James Ivory	...	Himself

Storyline

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes. The results run the gamut from Zhang Yimou's convention-thwarting joke to David Lynch's bizarre miniature epic.

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Plot Keywords:

surrealism | silent filmmaking | nudity | experiment | antique | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

France Denmark Spain Sweden

Language:

French English Danish Norwegian Swedish Greek Japanese Mandarin

Release Date:

20 December 1995 (France)

Also Known As:

Lumière and Company

Filming Locations:

Athens, Greece

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinétévé, La Sept-Arte, Igeldo Komunikazioa

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896)

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Soundtracks

"Lady Sings the Blues"
Billie Holiday / Herbie Nichols
Interprété par Billie Holiday
Hawaii Music Corp
Avec l'aimable autorisation de MCA Caravelle Music France
(Catalogue MCA)
1956 Verve Records Inc.
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Polygram Projets Spéciaux

User Reviews

Surprising lack of talent and ideas among pretentious twits...

In making this documentary, what its makers wind up unveiling is how many of them have no ideas whatsoever. Almost all the attempts with the Lumiere camera involve just placing a lot of people in front of the camera and have them wave and/or stare, or they involve films about filmmakers. Other attempts are to recreate the banal films which were made in the era of first attempts in the history of cinema. And then you have clips that you can see that the director didn't take the project seriously at all, as in the cases of Spike Lee and John Boorman. Then you get laughably bad films made by pretentious idiots, such as the one by Peter Greenaway (who concludes that film is dying) and the one by the Japanese twit who says that film doesn't capture anything.

On the plus side, you get some interesting films along the way, particularly among the last few, like the one by David Lynch, among others.