Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir
June 2, 2015 6:59 AM Subscribe
Lumière and Company was a project realised in 1995 to mark the centenary of the Lumière brothers’ first movies. Forty directors were given the use of a restored Lumière Cinematograph and asked to make a film under 1895-style constraints: (1) the films could be no longer than 52 seconds; (2) no synchronized sound was permitted; (3) no more than three takes were allowed. Any editing had to be done in-camera. Nearly all of the completed shorts have been compiled into a YouTube playlist. Please note that some of the clips contain nudity: treat this post as NSFW. Les Frères Lumière previously: 1, 2.
The participating directors: Merzak Allouache, Theo Angelopoulos, Vicente Aranda, Gabriel Axel, J.J. Bigas Luna, John Boorman, Youssef Chahine, Alain Corneau, Costa-Gavras, Raymond Depardon, Francis Girod, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Michael Haneke, Hugh Hudson, Gaston Kaboré, Abbas Kiarostami, Cédric Klapisch, Andrei Konchalovsky, Patrice Leconte, Spike Lee, Claude Lelouch, David Lynch, Ismail Merchant & James Ivory, Claude Miller, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Arthur Penn, Lucian Pintilie, Jacques Rivette, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Jerry Schatzberg, Nadine Trintignant, Fernando Trueba, Liv Ullman, Jaco van Dormael, Régis Wargnier, Wim Wenders, Zhang Yimou and Yoshishige Yoshida.
The participating directors: Merzak Allouache, Theo Angelopoulos, Vicente Aranda, Gabriel Axel, J.J. Bigas Luna, John Boorman, Youssef Chahine, Alain Corneau, Costa-Gavras, Raymond Depardon, Francis Girod, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Michael Haneke, Hugh Hudson, Gaston Kaboré, Abbas Kiarostami, Cédric Klapisch, Andrei Konchalovsky, Patrice Leconte, Spike Lee, Claude Lelouch, David Lynch, Ismail Merchant & James Ivory, Claude Miller, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Arthur Penn, Lucian Pintilie, Jacques Rivette, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Jerry Schatzberg, Nadine Trintignant, Fernando Trueba, Liv Ullman, Jaco van Dormael, Régis Wargnier, Wim Wenders, Zhang Yimou and Yoshishige Yoshida.
The skill and imagination in this is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing!
posted by Mooseli at 7:21 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by Mooseli at 7:21 AM on June 2, 2015
I would have loved to see Michael Bay, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas's efforts.
posted by Renoroc at 7:27 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by Renoroc at 7:27 AM on June 2, 2015
I'm surprised that I feel affection for many of these. Thank you.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:39 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:39 AM on June 2, 2015
Two women in the whole bunch. Impressive.
posted by wreckingball at 8:27 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by wreckingball at 8:27 AM on June 2, 2015
Two women in the whole bunch.
Yes, that’s a shame. A third (Nadine Trintignant) is the only one among the directors whose film seems not to be on YouTube. The Lumière and Company DVD embeds the shorts within a framing movie containing footage of the directors making their films, and being interviewed: this was also directed by a woman: Sarah Moon.
posted by misteraitch at 8:35 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes, that’s a shame. A third (Nadine Trintignant) is the only one among the directors whose film seems not to be on YouTube. The Lumière and Company DVD embeds the shorts within a framing movie containing footage of the directors making their films, and being interviewed: this was also directed by a woman: Sarah Moon.
posted by misteraitch at 8:35 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
It would be to have interspersed the films with commercials shots under the same constraints (52 seconds is quite a long commercial - but "no more than 3 takes/edits in camera" would be tricky).
posted by rongorongo at 9:13 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by rongorongo at 9:13 AM on June 2, 2015
Boorman's is particularly fun and Wender's made me so happy to see those angels again.
posted by cazoo at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2015
posted by cazoo at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2015
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