On December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers organized the first public paid screening of the cinematograph at the Grand Café in Paris. The films shown included La sortie de l’usine Lumière à Lyon as well as L’arroseur arrosé, the first filmed fiction.
On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of cinema, the Palace presents Origins of Cinema, an exhibition which traces the evolution of early projection devices, from the magic lantern to the first Pathé Frères projectors, via the Lumière cinematograph.
Before becoming the seventh art, cinema experimented with a series of devices of different scales. The exhibition opens with a series of magic lanterns, rudimentary projection devices that already took viewers on journeys through illustrated stories. Long considered mere toys or fairground attractions, they nonetheless constitute one of the technical and cultural foundations of cinematic spectacle.
The exhibition also looks at experiments conducted on the other side of the Atlantic with Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope. Offering an individual viewing experience through a peephole, this device preceded collective projection and demonstrates the many paths explored at the dawn of cinema.
Technical evolution was rapid. From the Lumière cinematograph to the first professional projector by the Pathé brothers, an entire industrial sector took shape. The exhibition presents around sixty devices, accessories, and period images, drawing on the collection and encyclopedic knowledge of Jean-Pierre Verscheure, historian of cinema techniques and regular collaborator of the Palace.
The experience is not limited to display cases. Several events will allow you to (re)discover the original projection conditions — notably through demonstrations of the Lumière cinematograph — or learn more about the evolution of image and sound techniques.
A side program will take you on a journey through different formats and media, silent and sound films, narrative genres from the simplest to the most sophisticated.
From still images to shaky footage to restored masterpieces, the exhibition and its program invite you to rediscover the birth of an art form that has continually reinvented itself over the course of just over a century.