Illustration by Susan Gross
Welcome to the second century of film.
On December 28, 1895, in the Grand Cafe in Paris, 14 boulevard des Capucines, the first program of films was screened, cinematic history was begun and a new language -- the language of film -- was born.
The press took little notice of that very first picture show, but one of the two reporters who showed up wrote: "With this new invention, death will be no longer absolute, final. The people we have seen on the screen will be with us, moving and alive after their deaths."
Experiences that could be called "film" had been shown before December 28, 1895 -- "Record of a Sneeze," "Man and Woman Kissing" -- but these were very brief one-shots, nothing more than animated photographs. The next and necessary step was to record the reality of life and perhaps even to tell a story.
The creators of the first movie program were the Lumière brothers, Louis Jean and Auguste Marie. Among the items on their bill of films were "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory," "Train Arriving," "A Game of Cards," and "The Squirter Squirted." Admission was one franc.
The Lumières took a few first steps in exploring the power and potentialities of the cinematic medium. The people, the animals and the vehicles in their films moved not just laterally, as on a stage, but toward and away from the camera. In "The Squirter Squirted," the Lumières placed a concocted vaudeville-like gag outdoors in an actual garden. A gardener is watering his plants. When a boy creeps up behind him and steps on the hose, the water stops. The gardener looks into the nozzle to see what the trouble is. The boy takes his foot off the hose, and the water gushes into the gardener's face. Then the gardener chases the boy and douses him.
The Lumière brothers were aptly named. Lumière in French means "light," and the Lumière factory manufactured photographic equipment. Louis and Auguste projected a light into our lives that works with special power because it is focused within a vast darkness. It is that conspiracy of light and cavernous darkness through which we today find so many of our dreams and our realities.
Names such as Lumière that are especially suited to the profession or a characteristic of their owners are called aptronyms. Believe it or not, Daniel Druff is a barber, C. Sharpe Minor a church organist and James Bugg an exterminator. Using the clues provided, identify five famous aptronymic personages:
We will let you know by e-mail if you are a winner. The correct answers will appear in next issue's VERBIVORE.
The solution to last issue's Verbivore was: 1. Hoe, hoe, hoe. 2. Noel, Noel. 3. Season's greetings. 4. St. Nickleless. 5. Bah! (or Baa!) Humbug! The winner was Frank Marcus.
