Roundhay Garden Scene
Roundhay Garden Scene
| 14 October 1888 (USA)
Roundhay Garden Scene Trailers

The earliest surviving celluloid film, and believed to be the second moving picture ever created, was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera. It was taken in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the Whitley family house in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire (UK), possibly on 14 October 1888. The film shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince's son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley (Le Prince's mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley, and Miss Harriet Hartley walking around in circles, laughing to themselves, and staying within the area framed by the camera. The Roundhay Garden Scene was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds.

Reviews
SeeQuant

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

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StyleSk8r

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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Joanna Mccarty

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

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Lachlan Coulson

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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Pencho15

If you are interested in the scarce filmography of Louis Le Prince it can only be for one reason. For you movies are a passion that goes beyond simple entertainment and you found out this man was the creator of moving images. Indeed, Louis Le Prince came a couple of years ahead of more famous pioneers like the Loumiere brothers and Thomas Edison so he has all the right to be considered the inventor of the seventh art. Regrettably the history of Le Prince is a sad one and worthy of a script that no one has yet made a movie: when the inventor was about to travel to the United States to patent his creation he mysteriously vanished in a french train and he was never seen again; his luggage with the complete versions of all his movies also went missing. That way we will never now all he filmed since the content of the suitcase was only known to him. Luckily it was possible to recover a few film fragments that were left inside some cameras at his studio, and those remains are the modest variety of his filmography we can appreciate today. Roundhay Garden Scene is the better known of the four films and the one that is considered by many the first movie in history: although there is no certainty about this since we don't know the order in which he filmed this scenes or if there was something older with the pictures that got lost. The two seconds of film shows us two couples of man and woman in a garden: the two younger persons at at the front and the two older are seen at the back, the camera captured them while, holding each other arm they walk around in circles, the scene finishes before they can even finish their first spin. Naturally you can't appreciate this picture based on its script, cinematography or any other sign of quality we search in modern movies; Roundhay Garden Scene is essentially a historical document, but it deserves all our admiration since this invention made possible everything that came afterward. A film is usually praised when it manages to do something new, well this one made it, never before this time had cinema been seen anywhere, and for that reason I have no doubt it deserves a rating of 10. Also this scene has something that is absent from the rest of Le Prince films and that gives it an extra meaning; the four persons on screen are relatives of the director and the garden was located at his home, obviously this people weren't just walking in circles for fun when they were captured for posterity, they were instructed by Le Prince to move like that in order to prove his invention, this means that the four persons were acting for the camera, an event that was not repeated for a few years since most of the following pictures, like the ones the Loumiere brothers created, were scenes documented from everyday life just as they happened. That means this is not only the first movie but the first acting for the screen and adding the opportunity to get a real view to XIX Century life then we have the more valuable two seconds of moving images in the whole world. If you love cinematography then don't miss the chance to watch this picture and witness how it all begun.

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WakenPayne

This Film Without Doubt Is Probably One Of The Most Historical Films Ever Made Purely On The Grounds That It Is The Oldest Film Ever Made. The Simple Fact That Its 2 Seconds Long Makes It One Of The Most Watchable Movies Ever Made, If You Hate It Its All Over In A Second. I Am Also A Fan Of LePrince's Other Film Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge However I Don't Like His Accordion Player Film Because Of Its Poor Picture Quality (It Looks As If Someone Had Put Sandpaper Over The Lense Whereas This Film Had A Much Clearer Picture Quality). Some People Talk About What The Movie Would've Been Like If It Was Longer But In My Opinion 2 Seconds Is Enough On The Grounds Of The History (Whatever You Do Don't Blink In This Movie Otherwise You'll Miss The Whole Thing).PS I Haven't Talked About The Quality Because As I Emphasised Its Just 2 Seconds Long.

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ElijahCSkuggs

It's amazing what you can find in just two measly seconds of grainy film. As our lead character (I think he was the hero) starts walking to the right, where the movie eventually comes to a conclusion, you see a woman. She has a beard! And she turns as the lead character walks by her. I'd turn around as well if I was a shapely woman (check out the funbags on that hamhock!) with foot long facial hair. And to make things even worse, you got another goonball (who I think was the villain) doing the wee-wee dance around a bonnet wearing ninny. In a matter of two seconds, you see two incredible displays of humor.....now that's saying something. Or you could just look at it and think someone accidentally pressed play on the camcorder. Either or!

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ilovekittiesdotcom

I gave this a rating of ten because you have to appreciate history don't you?Sure they made the whole thing in one day, but the people back then would probably never know how big just filming that little piece would be to future generations of movie making.Someone had finally figured out how to make the picture move like a flip book.It was sad that some of the actors died shortly after this was filmed, but it just makes it spookier so more people would watch. 10/10 Cool movie, even though not a lot of people are used to it.

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