Friday, November 8, 2013

Friday Video: Travel Scenes from Around the World, 1896-1900

Friday, November 8, 2013

Isabella reporting,

We've seen two other short films made the pioneering French film-maker Louis Lumière (1864-1948) - an 1896 Snowfall Fight, and Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon from 1895. But while these two films were shot close to home, Lumière also realized the exotic appeal of foreign lands to his budding audiences. Towards the end of the 19th c., he sent film crews to America, Europe, and the Middle East to capture these locations. Today's clip is a compilation of some of these very early travelogues. In addition to seeing the sights, I enjoyed watching these people from the past - what they wore and how they behaved in front of the novel new cameras.

If you want to guess the locations shown by the landmarks, then stop reading right here! Otherwise, here's the list in order of appearance: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France; Dresden, Germany; Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Italy; Palace of Westminster, London, England; Chain Bridge, Budapest, Hungary; Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium; Nice, France; Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Istanbul, Turkey; Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA; Egypt; Martyrs' Square, Beirut, Lebanon; Jerusalem, Palestine.

The evocative accompanying music is Gymnopedie No. 1 (1888) by French composer and pianist Erik Satie (1866-1925).

Many thanks to HomburghGuy on YouTube for sharing this video.

6 comments:

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

This was wonderful! Thanks so much. It's a real treasure. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. This puts you right in that era.

Louise Kahler said...

thank you nerdy history girls - I just returned from a month long trip to Italy. Please keep posting these lovely lovely videos - they are such a treat!

Caro Carson said...

I really enjoyed seeing how women moved in those full skirts. They didn't seem to walk any differently than we do in jeans, to my surprise. Did you notice the women passing the men on the staircase in Brooklyn? They just walked right down those stairs without holding their skirts up or needing a man's arm or a railing to hold. I suppose if I'd worn skirts my whole life, I'd be the same. Since I don't, I'm always so careful on stairs on those rare occasions when I'm in a long skirt!

Nokomarie said...

What was interesting for me was the constriction those corsets really seemed to have. There is one moment when two women pivot while apparently waiting for a conveyance and, instead of a natural turn, their entire bodies came about in stiff columns. A manikin has more flexibility of torso.

The long skirts, meh, I wear long skirts a lot. They are not really an impediment to movement.

Hels said...

Super that the miniature portrait was bought by the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where it will soon go on display. I don't think I remember Sophia Hudson, but the rock solid paper trail is in place... which always makes the curators feel happy.

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