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71% Critic Match
Lumière, Le Cinéma!
7.1 / 10• 2024• 1h 44m•NR• French
DocumentaryHistory
Storyline
In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers Auguste and Louis, whose brilliant invention, the cinematograph, helped to inaugurate the most beloved art form of the last 130 years. Institute Lumière director Thierry Frémaux uses Lumière, Le Cinema! to guide the viewer through over a hundred shorts—some famous, some forgotten, some never before seen—directed by Lumière and company. In the process, Frémaux illuminates how the brothers employed the camera as a creative instrument as they (and their operators) mastered framing, staging, and subject selection for quotidian and exotic microdocumentaries as well as the first ever fictional motion pictures. The result is not only a glorious re(telling) of the genesis of cinema but a profound meditation on the beautiful world captured—and the mysterious world imagined—by the Lumières.
Cast & Crew
Thierry Frémaux
Self - Narrator (voice)
Lead
Francis Ford Coppola
Self
Roman Coppola
Self
Bertrand Tavernier
Self
Valerio Mastandrea
Self - Narrator (voice)
Alain Chabat
—
Laurent Gerra
—
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Thierry Frémaux's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
4.0
“Every frame feels alive. Lumière, Le Cinéma! is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
