User Reviews

At this point in the history of motion pictures, a panorama meant a camera that moved, any camera that moved, usually by being put on a train or boat or some such and giving the viewers a sight of what they would see in the camera's place: a constantly changing view. By the middle of the next decade, it had assumed its modern meaning of a panorama or "Pan" shot, in which the camera sat in one spot and was turned to give up to a 360 degree field of vision. Later, wide-screen techniques would attempt to replicate the original painterly sense with a wide-angle view -- and incorporate the word in such wide-screen methods as Panavision.

In the meantime, we get to see this film. It is the flip viewpoint to the Lumieres' "Arrivée d'un train à Perrache" in which the camera was set at the station and the audience gets to see the train approach. With this, we see the places the train passes by until the station is reached.

The Lumieres had invented the point-of-view shot.

Panorama de l'arrivée en gare de Perrache pris du train (1896)

In case the title didn't give it away, this Lumiere Brothers film has the camera set up on what appears to be the observation deck of a train. For less than a minute the camera captures everything that passes. If you're familiar with the films from this era then you'll already know that trains were quite popular as were films where the camera was placed on the train and captures what was going on. This here is obviously nothing ground-breaking but it's still fascinating getting to see the landscape of the era. Fans of these old train movies should be entertained by this one.

Not to be confused with the same year's Arrival of a Train in Perrache, another Lumière film that shows the train's arrival from the point of view of the station, this film was shot from the moving train itself. This sense of movement, as we watch buildings and landmarks go by, is remarkable for a time in which the vast majority of films, whether filmed inside or outdoors, were shot from a stationary position. In reality, this (and similar Lumière films from the same year) was also shot stationary, but placing the camera on a moving vehicle or platform gives a sense of motion that make these films feel more modern than their contemporaries.

The film opens on the side of a building that quickly whizzes by. As the camera moves past the first few buildings, we get a deeper focus background with a house atop a big hill, move across a river where we can see horse-drawn carriages and people crossing a bridge, track past some trees and buildings with full-side billboards for lingerie, and end up in what appears to be a rail yard. As the film ends, the train is presumably reaching its destination at the station. Arrival by Train is a beautiful film that ranks among the best of the Lumière location shoots. I highly recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in early film history.

I really am not sure. The train appears to still have a long ways to go by the time the short ends. It doesn't seem like it's slowing down or anything. I suppose maybe it was close enough to the station that the Lumiere Bros thought they could get away with it. In any case, this Lumiere feature is different. The camera is not stationary, it moves!!! Okay, big deal, because it was on a train (look at the title) and Alexandre Promio had already shot the world's first moving shot in Venice on a gondola, but it's still remarkable for 1896. It's mainly just about capturing the surrounding scenery as it was at the time, so historians will find it worthwhile for that alone. Seeing buildings as they were in 1896 is a privilege, so be entertained by these 40 seconds.