Cinematography, the world's most popular art, is also the youngest. Born at the end of the 19th century, cinema has quickly grown from silent black-and-white minute-long screenings to vibrant, colorful pictures with a vivid, immersive effect. But for the contemporaries of the first film shows, motion pictures were as magical as cinema in 3D or filmed at 48 frames per second is now.
Long way to the movie screen
After the invention of photography, the main idea of which was to fix a still image on a special paper, the question arose of how to fix a moving image. Progress at the end of the 19th century raced at the speed of the recently launched steam express, so that the urgent need was solved by the inventors of different countries simultaneously and completely independently of each other.
It was necessary to invent a flexible photosensitive film, a chronophotographic apparatus to fix the image on the film, and a projector to display the fixed images. Scientists and inventors worked on these interrelated tasks during the last two decades of the 19th century.
And so, in 1895-1896, various devices were invented that combined all the basic elements of cinema: the "cinematograph" of the Lumiere brothers in France, the film projector of O. Mester in Germany, the "animatograph" of R. Paul in England; and in Russia - "chronophotographer" A. Samarsky and "strobograph" I. Akimov.
The secret of the success of the first films
Perhaps the first screening of the movie was a demonstration of moving pictures by J. L. Roy in the city of Clinton (USA). However, Americans remained indifferent to the nascent art, and the event did not receive much publicity.
The Lumière brothers, one of whom was an inventor and the other a financier, took a more serious approach to the film business. In February 1895, Louis Lumière patented his invention - a combined cinema camera, called "cinematograph".
Auguste Lumière was not sure of the success of the new project, which was required, first of all, to bring money, and secondly, to surprise and delight. Therefore, he began to arrange trial screenings in order to probe the mood of possible viewers. The first such screening took place in the house of the inventor on March 22, 1895, where a short film "The exit of workers from the Lumiere factory" was shown to close friends. Reporters, photographers, businessmen were invited to such closed screenings, whose words spoken in time and place could influence the success of the new venture.
Finally, the Lumière brothers felt that the work they had done allowed for the first commercial film screening. For an important event, the popular Parisian "Grand Café", located on Boulevard des Capucines, was chosen. There, in the basement on December 28, 1895, a film was shown, one and a half minutes long, "Arrival of the train at La Ciotat station." The time was also not chosen by chance - the Christmas holidays ensured the attention and success of the first and all subsequent film shows.
This date is considered the birthday of world cinema.
