Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1842-?) is the true father of cinema, though other characters (previously covered) tend to get the limelight in America. Even in France, study often begins on or near the Lumière Brothers rather than with Le Prince. But forget everyone else. Thomas Edison had money, fame, and a research facility staffed with top-notch engineers, and the Lumière Brothers’ biggest contribution lay in buying out someone else’s patent. Louis Le Prince was just a guy who happened to be the first person in the world to capture anything, at all, that could be considered a “motion picture” as we know the term today.
As with the Kinetoscope, Le Prince developed a complete system for motion capture and delivery; unlike Edison’s pretender to the throne, Le Prince’s system utilized true projection, not just a peephole system. Absent from his work, however, is any way to produce sound. He also used paper film, although he may have experimented with celluloid film prior to his disappearance.
Filmed in 1888; the second film ever made.
Le Prince’s disappearance on September 16, 1890, is entirely unexplained and entirely unfortunate. He boarded a train to Dijon, France, shortly before a planned emigration to New York, where he hoped to promote his inventions. He was never seen again. The devices he created went on to languish in obscurity, and his legacy today is not 1/10th of what it could, perhaps, have been. Equally important (the film world, after all, did find a way to soldier on) is the personal tragedy of it all, for the wife and family he left behind.
Theories around his disappearance include a rather improbable assassination conspiracy (Edison taking out the competition), that he committed suicide and intentionally erased all traces of himself, that his family ordered him to disappear because he was a homosexual embarrassment, and that his brother murdered him for money. All such theories are nothing more than speculation. The closest there is to hard fact is a photo later discovered in the Paris police archives of an unidentified drowned man who looks similar to Le Prince.
Shot on October 14, 1888–the first film ever made.
The first film ever made, Roundhay Garden Scene, is surrounded in tragedy. Ten days after appearing in the film, Louis Le Prince’s mother-in-law passed away. Two years later, Louis Le Prince disappeared, and four years after appearing in the film, his son Adolphe Le Prince committed suicide. But at least they made history–two whole seconds of it.
This is Part Three of a multi-part series of posts. Part One discuses Eadweard Muybridge. Part Two discusses Thomas Alva Edison. Part Four discusses the Lumière Brothers.
Links to this post:
- Film Heritage Part Two: Thomas Alva Edison - sonandfoe.com on August 15, 2007
- Film Heritage Part Four: The Lumière Brothers - sonandfoe.com on August 23, 2007
- Film Heritage Part 1: Eadweard Muybridge - sonandfoe.com on August 23, 2007
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