L'Arrivée d'un train en Gate de la Ciotat, (The Arrival of a Train at la Ciotat Station) is a historicly significant short film produced and distributed by The Lumière Brothers.

It premiered on a large screen 28 December 1895 in Paris, France.

The audience was reportedly frightened by the image of a train coming directly at them, screamed, and ran to the back of the room. Hellmuth Karasek of Der Spiegel wrote, "One short film had a particularly lasting impact; yes, it caused fear, terror, even panic... L'Arrivée d'un train en Gate de la Ciotat (Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station)....". This is a story that has been repeated numerous times in many publications and by word of mouth. The story implies a primitive audience that were absolutely fooled by the realism of the black and white moving image.

This story is, however, highly suspect. The sophisticated Parisian audience, many of whom may have taken the train to the theater, were well aware that they were going to see a demonstration of a projected moving image. Film scholar and historian Martin Loiperdinger's original essay, "Lumire's Arrival of the Train: Cinema's Founding Myth" (The Moving Image - Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 89-118) is a good source with which to debunk the tale.

Louis and his brother Auguste Lumiere also filmed Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory that year.

See also

History of cinema

External link

The Lumiere Institute, Lyon, France