Pretty Good

best movie i've ever seen.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Among the preserved films in the "Saved from the Flames" DVD collection was this early August and Louis Lumiere clip that simply depicted a train arriving with the passengers getting off unaware they're being filmed with their faces about to be immortalized for future film archivists. According to legend, first-time audiences fled their seats (if not the theatre) thinking the train was going to come after them! While I've no doubt some truth was in that statement concerning less sophisticated viewers, I'm also sure many of them were aware it was just a moving picture projection and just sat down for some entertainment. Anyway, this 1-minute short is worth a look as historical artifact.

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.

There doesn't seem to be anything particularly exciting about an approaching steam locomotive, but somehow this image has stuck, the first iconic scene in cinematic history. Produced by pioneering French filmmakers Auguste and Louis Lumière, 'L' Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat / Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat' was filmed at La Ciotat, Bouches-du-Rhône, France on December 28, 1895 and first screened to a paying audience on January 6, 1896. The 50-second long film, like most other Lumière shorts, successfully captures a brief snippet of everyday life, chronicling the gradual approach of the train, its slow to a halt, and the disembarkment of its passengers.For many years, there has been an enduring myth than, upon the first screening of the film, the audience was so overwhelmed by the image of the train bearing down upon them that they fled the room in terror. This has been shown to be something of an embellishment, and, though the film would undoubtedly have astounded and mesmerised audiences, there was never any real mass panic. French scientist Henri de Parville, who attended an early screening, is said to have written: "The animated photographs are small marvels. ...All is incredibly real. What a power of illusion! ...The streetcars, the carriages are moving towards the audience. A carriage was galloping in our direction. One of my neighbors was so much captivated that she sprung to her feet... and waited until the car disappeared before she sat down again." This, I think, adequately sums up how remarkable the film must have seemed back in 1896.Auguste and Louis Lumière obviously recognised the power of illusion offered by their Cinématographe. In order to maximise the shock value of the approaching train, they have mounted the camera as close as possible to the edge of the platform, so that the audience feels as if they are almost standing right in the locomotive's path. The people departing from the train are just normal citizens going about their day (several Lumière relatives, however, can be spied on the platform), enhancing the realism of the short. Cinema does not get much more memorable than this.

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