There's some debate about who actually invented the cinématographe, a multi-purpose upgrade of Edison's kinetoscope that could record, process and, crucially, project moving images using photographic film. Léon Bouly appears to have patented such a device in 1892, but by the end of 1895 brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière owned the patent, had developed and improved the design and had begun to exploit it commercially. Their first forays into film were made literally on their own doorstep, setting up the machine in front of their photographic factory in Lyon to record workers leaving at the end of the working day.
There are three versions of the film made at different times and I'm not clear which version was actually screened as first on the bill at the historic Lumière presentation on 28 December 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris — the first ever cinematic exhibition to a paying public. The trio are sometimes termed the One Horse, Two Horse and No Horse versions, referring to the horse drawn vehicles featured, or not. The earliest version (One Horse?) is said to have been made in March of that year and in the others the weather is progressively sunnier and the clothing lighter. No Horse has the steadiest and most detailed image, and includes the factory gates being opened and (partly) closed.
As the mainly female workforce bustles home, few appear to acknowledge the camera — these are photographic workers after all, and some of them may have had some idea about what their bosses were up to. Most of the men follow later — presumably jobs and workshops were segregated — and a cyclist and another man who burst through the throng have the air of deliberate mugging.
This was also the earliest film to spawn a whole genre, as factory gate scenes became a popular theme of early cinema. The hoard of early 20th century films from British producers Mitchell & Kenyon recovered in the 1990s contains numerous examples, and they were often popular at local screenings where audience members could spot themselves and their colleagues. In these later films, the subjects are much more camera conscious, but for much of the short running time of La sortie des usines Lumière, there's at least the illusion of an unmediated glimpse into the lives of ordinary people from over a century ago.
There are three versions of the film made at different times and I'm not clear which version was actually screened as first on the bill at the historic Lumière presentation on 28 December 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris — the first ever cinematic exhibition to a paying public. The trio are sometimes termed the One Horse, Two Horse and No Horse versions, referring to the horse drawn vehicles featured, or not. The earliest version (One Horse?) is said to have been made in March of that year and in the others the weather is progressively sunnier and the clothing lighter. No Horse has the steadiest and most detailed image, and includes the factory gates being opened and (partly) closed.
As the mainly female workforce bustles home, few appear to acknowledge the camera — these are photographic workers after all, and some of them may have had some idea about what their bosses were up to. Most of the men follow later — presumably jobs and workshops were segregated — and a cyclist and another man who burst through the throng have the air of deliberate mugging.
This was also the earliest film to spawn a whole genre, as factory gate scenes became a popular theme of early cinema. The hoard of early 20th century films from British producers Mitchell & Kenyon recovered in the 1990s contains numerous examples, and they were often popular at local screenings where audience members could spot themselves and their colleagues. In these later films, the subjects are much more camera conscious, but for much of the short running time of La sortie des usines Lumière, there's at least the illusion of an unmediated glimpse into the lives of ordinary people from over a century ago.