Cinema Muto

film history as train wreck

69 film history as train wreck { 1 } 1895 the Lumière Brother’s moving picture of a train arriving at La Ciotat station— its engine hurtling toward the audience— makes women faint, men scream, the crowd stampede for the exits. { 2 } this may or may not be true. critics differ. historians have disagreed. { 3 } the word cacophony comes to mind, the words“burst in uninvited” but I speak only for myself &, honestly, even my mother’s mother wasn’t there. { 4 } unless she was so frightened after fleeing from the basement of the Grand Café she had amnesia 70 & wandered down the Boulevard des Capucines along the Canal St-Martin until my grandfather, keeper of the Lock of the Barn of the Beautiful, took pity on this strange girl. then maybe married her or maybe not on that the records disagree. { 5 } so, here is my hypothesis: a) The men & women were scared & wished, precipitously, to leave. b) without Auguste & Louis Lumière, my mother, & hence me, might not have been invented. c) this event has already taken place, in the distant past, & we can only speculate. we can never know. we can never, like my poor grandmère, be thunderstruck with wonder. ...