Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
The oldest film in history!
On October 14, 1888, the French chemist and inventor Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1840 - 1890 ? )...
... takes with a film camera he developed himself...
...in Leeds, UK, the first - and thus oldest - film in history:
It is the so-called "Roundhay Garden Scene"...:
The film features a short scene of the Whitley family, with whom Le Prince was acquainted, in their home garden in Roundhay...:
How long the film was in reality is unknown, since only a fragment of it is included...:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Scene.ogv/Roundhay_Garden_Scene.ogv.240p.webm
A few days later, Le Prince makes more footage in Leeds - namely of the traffic on the Leeds Bridge ("Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge")...:
Only a short fragment of this is saved!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ffic_Crossing_Leeds_Bridge_film.ogv.240p.webm
The end of this first successful experimental filmmaker is mysterious:
In 1890, Le Prince planned a trip to New York to present his camera and films. On September 12, 1890 he visited his brother in Dijon.
According to this, Le Prince...
...on the 16th boarded a train to Paris to meet up with friends from England.
However, he never arrived in Paris and, despite an intensive search by his family and the police, he disappeared without a trace. To this day he is considered missing, which is why the day of his departure from Dijon is listed in the encyclopedias as the day of his death.
But he may well have lived longer, because a "suitable" corpse was never found either!
This is what he could have looked like - police photo montage - in later years...:
What exactly happened is still unclear to this day.
On October 14, 1888, the French chemist and inventor Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1840 - 1890 ? )...
... takes with a film camera he developed himself...
...in Leeds, UK, the first - and thus oldest - film in history:
It is the so-called "Roundhay Garden Scene"...:
The film features a short scene of the Whitley family, with whom Le Prince was acquainted, in their home garden in Roundhay...:
How long the film was in reality is unknown, since only a fragment of it is included...:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...Scene.ogv/Roundhay_Garden_Scene.ogv.240p.webm
A few days later, Le Prince makes more footage in Leeds - namely of the traffic on the Leeds Bridge ("Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge")...:
Only a short fragment of this is saved!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ffic_Crossing_Leeds_Bridge_film.ogv.240p.webm
The end of this first successful experimental filmmaker is mysterious:
In 1890, Le Prince planned a trip to New York to present his camera and films. On September 12, 1890 he visited his brother in Dijon.
According to this, Le Prince...
...on the 16th boarded a train to Paris to meet up with friends from England.
However, he never arrived in Paris and, despite an intensive search by his family and the police, he disappeared without a trace. To this day he is considered missing, which is why the day of his departure from Dijon is listed in the encyclopedias as the day of his death.
But he may well have lived longer, because a "suitable" corpse was never found either!
This is what he could have looked like - police photo montage - in later years...:
What exactly happened is still unclear to this day.
