Départ de Jérusalem en chemin de fer

If you take a good look into the world of the first films ever than you will find many different genres that were popular during the time and were copied a lot. "Leaving Jerusalem by Railway" is a film that can be placed in the actuality genre, but can also be considered an entry into the Phantom Ride genre. Phantom Rides were films taken on a train that basically documented the surrounding area as the train moved. And, considering I've seen several of these, I think I can safely call this short the first Phantom Ride film ever. Other phantom ride films include Georges Melies's "Panorama from top of a moving train" and Lumieres' own "Panorama de l'arrivee en gare de Perrache pris d'un train". Films involving phantom rides as part of narrative structures include Smith's "A Kiss in the Tunnel" and Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery".

Here, instead of filming in a forward direction like later Phantom Rides, this short moves backwards. The train which the camera is mounted on pulls out of the station and leaves the people behind. I suppose the Lumiere cameraman Alexander Promio only had so much film in the camera so that's why is ended so quickly. Interesting actuality and while not the first moving shot ever (the first moving shot was in "Panorama du Grand Canal pris d'un bateau", another Lumiere short) it does add to that category. It's also an interesting look into the past, as is all of Lumiere's movies.

A camera attached to a train pulls out of a station in Jerusalem, watched by genial onlookers. If one's mind and imagination are open, the effect is thrilling, taking to its logical conclusion movement within a static frame, and also reversing the experience of 'Arrivee d'un train'; now the audience is no longer frightened by an oncoming threat, a passive victim to a locomotive object, but part of that movement, with the camera transporting us from reality, from the stable and still, a transport the cinema has made its raison d'etre.

The film is cherisable for other reasons - the smiles of the observers left behind; for the complex interplay of gazing this prompts - with whom do we identify, the looker or the thing looked at: we share properties with both; the beautiful gliding movement which does not mirror any experience I've ever had on a train, that transport medium on its way out as cinema begins its conquest.

Most moving of all is the vision of late-19th century Jerusalem that rises miraculously from the reassuringly familiar station, vast ruins which are not as other ruins, but seem like petrified tears, as with the trees in 'Sleepy Hollow' or 'Saddle the Wind'. This view of a city, already weighed down with history and contention, yet untainted by the blight of the 20th century, is breathtaking, and a little humbling.

Plot

A train is leaving a railway station at the outskirts of Jerusalem. From the very end of the train a barren, rocky landscape is seen, and some ruins of very old buildings,. Five men walk along the track, tipping their hats when the train departs. When it approaches the station building more people are seen, people of different ethnicity and religion. Some men wear fezzes on their heads and canes in their hands. A Franciscan monk comes walking in the middle of a mixed group of people. The platform outside the station is crowded with people waiting for the next train. Among them is a man with a sword at his side. The big windows of the station are covered with shutters. After the station the train passes a long fence, enclosing a lumberyard.

Cast

Non-applicable

Verdict

French made and pre 1900's this lasts but a minute (Literally) but is a fantastic little example of where cinema began.

It's just a 51 second recording off the back of a train as it pulls out of Jerusalem in 1897, sure all you're seeing is a bunch of people waving and smiling at the camera but that's all its purpose ever was.

The camerawork is static but the camera quality is better than you'd imagine, in fact films up to and including the 1930's were often not this crisp!

Quaint and endearing.

Breakdown + History put to film

• That's basically it

Rants

What a different place Jerusalem was then, such innocence compared to today. No "Cleansing", no genocide, no hatred and intolerance just fascination with the advancement of technology before religion decided to put an end to that and instead put their efforts into mythology and intolerance.

Jerusalem in the Ottoman Empire in 1897 was a strange place to us today. Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side by side in relative harmony. They celebrated their own customs, and also partook in the celebrations of the others' customary feasts and holidays.

The old Jerusalem Train Station has recently been re-opened - preserved and renovated - and gives hundreds of thousands of people joy as a public area with cultural events and great restaurants and bars in Jerusalem.

The Lumiere brothers' claim to fame is that they invented an "all in one" camera in which a film could be shot, film developed, and then film projected that allowed their "actualities" - shots of real life - to be seen by an entire audience. Edison's original invention only allowed one person at a time to view one of their films and their devices were unwieldy, unlike the device devised by the Lumieres. Their camera also produced a much clearer image than the Edison's camera could produce.

Départ de Jérusalem en chemin de fer (1897)

Mixing travel with a train, something that would have been quite popular to people willing to pay and watch this film back in the day. The camera is set on board a train and we see the footage of the station as the train is pulling away. That's pretty much the only thing that happens here but the Lummiere Brothers were making all sorts of movies where their crews traveled the world to shoot footage. Trains were also quite popular in the day so the company decided to combine the two. There's some pretty good footage here that's at least well-shot as we get to see what people were doing at the station. As I always say, it's fascinating getting to see these moments in time that were captured.