Here is one of my favorite Victorian cinema clips - it is only about 40 seconds long (an eternity for a movie, when it was shot in 1899-1900) with a little girl feeding a cat. I am pretty sure that this is the first cat ever in the movies - she or he looks a bit like a Norwegian Forest Cat to me, and is very beautiful.
The film quality is extraordinarily clear. It was made by the Lumière brothers, cinema pioneers who had the most serendipitous name in the movies: it is French for "light."
Auguste and Louis Lumière, sons of a photographer in Lyon, France, began working with film in the early 1890s. They developed several refinements to the motion picture camera, most notably perforation of the edge of the film so that it could travel through the camera and projector more easily. They began making films in 1895.
I wonder what she is feeding that cat? And she seems a little bit old for the high chair, don't you think?
11 comments:
So Cool!
But now my Smudgie is jealous, because that's just what he wants, a career in showbusiness.
Neat-O! And the cat is very pretty, too.
My, that cat seems voracious. I wonder how long they starved the thing before filming. I hope they counted the little girl's fingers before & after the shot.
Bethany - This is why I can't show this to Asha and Katia (though Katia does like to walk across the laptop, she kind of missed seeing this, she was too busy trying to step on all the keys at once!)
Daisy - She is, and so are you! :)
Bill - I wonder what that cat was eating! Ours never seem quite that enthusiastic about cat treats.
This is such a cute video!
That really is amazingly clear video for the time. Thanks for sharing. www.satisfiedsole.com
Dashery and Pam - It really is a nice clip, and so clear, so I had favorited it on YouTube awhile ago.
Brilliant! That cat does seem quite excited... It must've been quite hungry!
Nikki-Ann - They must have made sure the cat was going to rally want a snack! :)
Hello,
for your information.
The first cat in cinema was a scientific film by Etienne-Jules Marey. Probably "Falling Cat" (Chat En Chute Libre) or probably just a short snippet called Cats (Chats). This is between 1892-1894.
Don't believe the Youtube version which says it's 1890. It's somewhere between 1892-1895. Probably 1894.
Cheers,
Cedric Casp
There is also Boxing Cats by the Edison crew (Wiliam Dickson?) which predates this Lumière film.
I don't have a date handy. But about 1895-1896.
Cedric Casp
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