User Reviews

This is another of the many realities, short films of actual events, that were popular at the time: people bustling by on a busy city street, be it Milan, Lyons, London or New York. They were the one-celled ancestors of the "City Symphonies" of the 1920s.

What sets this one apart? The ornate detailing of the Duomo that forms the background of the scene; the dresses of some of the women, although that might indicate warm weather, rather than any sort of general standard costume.

What sets this one apart is the immense confusion of the movement. The Lumieres understood composition from their roots in still photography. They came to a quick and elegant understanding that competing lines of movement in different parts of the frame kept the eye moving and interested.

In this one, however, there are far too many lines of movement. People walk in a straight line in one direction, others in a perpendicular, crossing path. Trams swerve on diagonals and then tun to cut across and behind them new streams of movement begin -- perhaps a traffic cop has permitted these people to move on.

It's all too confusing to make much sense of . Perhaps that was the point -- to show what the yokels saw.

Milan, place du Dôme (1896)

This actuality film from the Lumiere Brothers has the camera sitting on a busy street. In the far background we see some large buildings but the main focus are on the people walking the street and towards the camera. This here is pretty much what you'd expect from an actuality movie. The highlight of the film is the moment where a kid is walking towards the camera and basically stops in front of it. It seems clear he's wondering what's going on and this is how the movie ends (we only see the top part of his hat towards the end). If you're a fan of this type of film then you'll certainly enjoy what's on display here. Again, there's nothing ground-breaking but this is certainly entertaining enough and especially at under a minute.