Laveuses sur la rivière

Laveuses sur la rivière (1897)

The title of this Lumiere Brothers film translates to Washers in the River. Basically this is obviously some sort of workplace where clothes are being washed by a group of women. If you're looking for anything ground-breaking then you're not going to find it here but this actuality film is very entertaining because it shows you a moment in time. This film certainly didn't break any new groups but when viewed today you can at least see how this job was done and the visual look of the film was quite good. It will certainly keep you entertained throughout the short running time.

At the top of the screen is a busy street full of traffic, with horse-drawn wagons rolling by. Beneath them are a couple of well-dressed men, standing, looking at.... who knows what? They have the leisure to stand there and look. Beneath them, at the bottom of the screen, women are busy scrubbing clothes on the riverbank.

The Lumieres have created an interesting vertical triptych with this film, and the contrasts in movement between the levels adds enormously to the effect, with the horizontal movement of the street traffic drawing your eye to the top and the vertical movement of the women scrubbing drawing your eye to the bottom, passing over the gentlemen of leisure in the middle.

The Lumieres also used this triptych effect with differing lines of movement in NEW YORK, PONT DE BROOKLYN the same year, but this has a far more radical message.

Basically this is a moving painting which, given it's right as cinema is an infant waddling around, is striking all on its own. It's a beautiful, sumptuous composition and yet the detail of having the horses at the very top of the frame is a complimentary contrast to the women working below, like, this is a day and here it goes on. There's not much else to it except that it's one minute of how people go about their day, and for these women it's putting together their clothes and washing by the river (which also gives them a beautiful reflection). It's a frame that's alive and throbbing with life, and that's all that needs to be put forward. Make sure if you can watch this to see it in the HD restoration (it's available online).