nmmoser

I agree totally. I am taking this course for the same reason--I must be missing something, right? I do love dark comedy and screwball comedy, but have never really enjoyed more than a few minutes of slapstick. Several of the films on the syllabus are what I think of as screwball, where the jokes and insults are more verbal than physical as in slapstick. I am also interested in the technology behind filmmaking and am delighted that we are starting at the very beginning.

I read somewhere that the man who plays the gardener (Francois Clerc) was Lumiere's real-life gardener. The boy was a factory worker from one of Lumiere's earlier films.

Up until this short, films were more documentary in nature--portraying moving scenes of every day events (a sneeze, a train approaching, workers leaving a factory). The emphasis had been definitely on the technology itself and not on the narrative value. The first audience must have been astounded and delighted to imagine the possibilities of this new art form. Ironically, the Lumiere brothers were themselves more interested in the technology and not the creative value of film. They incorrectly imagined that film was a passing fad and got out of filming/directing just a few years later to focus on improving the technology behind the lens. But they definitely had a great sense of humor. Here is a photo from Luminous Lint that shows off both their newly developed color photographic technology and their dry sense of humor: http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/image/446412017488925809656003/