The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1897)

Wonderful character development!

Sadly Over-hyped

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

So here I am, finally reviewing one of the first early films I ever saw in mah life! Whoa, why the heck did I save this movie for my 165th review on this site? That's like callin' this a bad movie, which it ain't at all; it is an awesome historical landmark that is not only a great look at life in 1896, but is also a film that totally freaked out audiences when they viewed it!!!! Yeah, so "Arrival of a Train at la Ciotat" doesn't actually tell us anymore than what the title says, but that image of the train arriving, actually, truly (well, if you'd like to believe it) made people panic and scream (and maybe even faint). Read the title of this review. Yes, THAT'S basically what people yelled when they first saw this.But how could this cause such a panic? I mean it's only a train in a station!Well, look at the angle of the camera. It is stationed so that the train comes diagonally towards the screen. So, if you lived in the 1890s, this short, 50 second bit of everyday life just might freak you out (but it has no effect at all today). This is why some people are calling this one of the first horror films. I, personally, do not exactly believe this is the first horror film; in my opinion the first horror film was Edison's "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots". And, as a film itself, the action is interesting because it showed you what happened one day at La Ciotat, France. That alone could be a real reason to watch this.This film was copied by many later filmmakers, which is more proof how famous it was. People such as Melies ("The Arrival of a Train at Vincennes Station" and "The Arrival of a Train, Joinville Station") Robert Paul (The Countryman and the Cinematograph) and even Lumiere himself (Arrival of a Train at la Perrache) created many remakes of this subject. This makes "Arrival of a Train at la Ciotat" probably the Lumiere Bro's most famous short film ever. If you want to begin watching silent shorts, this one is a great start.

A train arrives at a station. And changes everything.There isn't a lot to really say about L'arrivée d'un train a La Ciotat as a film itself. It's under a minute and shows a train pull up at a busy station. But what it signifies is another thing altogether. When we see that train come closer and closer until it stops in the station, on a surface level we watch a train arrive but it actuality what we are really witnessing is cinema arrive. This short film may not be the earliest movie but it is the first iconic image of the moving picture age.Auguste and Louis Lumière weren't really artists. Their early films don't stand up to the highly imaginative work of George Méliès for example. But they still remain enormously important cinema giants. Not for the content of their films but for the fact that they kicked things off in the first place and produced the first iconic moment in cinema history. And for this reason L'arrivée d'un train a La Ciotat will always be remembered. Everyone who has a love of cinema should really take a minute of their time to pay homage to the first moment in an amazing journey.

Arrival of the Mail Train, The (1896) **** (out of 4) Even though this film is over one-hundred years ago you can't help but remember that it contains one of the most famous shots and perhaps the first movie myth. The film, running under a minute, features the camera pointing at a train as it arrives in a station and then we see people getting off it. According to legend, the first time this film was shown in theaters people were in such fear that they were going to be hit by the train that they ran out of there in a near riot mode. Whether or not this is true is something we'll never really know but it's fun to believe it. The film certainly doesn't offer up anything in terms of entertainment but as a history lesson there's not too many bigger.

This movie is 50 seconds long,but it's over 110 years.I can't say that it's good movie or one of greatest or even not normal.But it's watchable.This movie(1895)is 27 years older than Nosferatu. The Arrival of the Mail Train is of course to people like Paris Hilton life's most boring 50 seconds.But even Paris should watch this.Thanks brothers Lumière's that you create the world of film. There is no acting in there.This 50-second silent film shows the entry of a steam locomotive into a train station in the French coastal town of La Ciotat. Like most of the early Lumière films consists of a single, unedited view illustrating an aspect of everyday life.6.5/10