Georges Demeny produced this before motion pictures were any sort of a reality, to satisfy a request by a friend of his who wished to teach deaf-mutes how to speak. He took several shots of himself in the process of saying "Je vous aime" -- French for "I Love You." It's a mildly interesting bypath in the development of cinema as we know it today, a signpost that people were interested in the process, even if they were not, as yet, sure what they would eventually do with it. Just as Eadweard Muybridge's tripwire photography had shown how horses actually move when they gallop, so this shows how people move their faces and mouths when they speak a particular phrase.
It also shows a use for the medium close-up shot, although that term would not become useful for almost a decade. That's the advantage of being first: you get dibs on all the good ideas.
