Lumière Brothers - The Serpentine Dance (c.1899)

[MattTheSaiyan]

I wish I could go a day with seeing everything like an old hand-coloured film. That would be....interesting.

[proceedapathy]

What documentary is this from again?

[317East32nd]

@proceedapathy, the DVD is entitled Lumiere Brothers' First Films, and it is available from several popular sources. I believe it's a KINO release.

[2edv]

You know what really grinds my gears? People in the 19th century. Why don't they get with the freakin' programme?

[HotVoodooWitch]

Just beautiful but I think this clip is projected at too many frames per second. It's running awfully fast.

[ISuperLoveMovies]

@HotVoodooWitch It looks fast because it probably was filmed with 16 or 18 frames per second. That's also why the moving does not look smooth.

[nostrangernow]

Considerando que fue pintado cuadro a cuadro a mano, es un gran espectáculo. Además el efecto visual es inigualable. Quedó bien logrado.

[burngadget]

oh my goddess!

[Styxhexenhammer666]

The first psychedelic movie ever. Bet the laudanum addicts LOVED this.

[insertclevernickname]

Probably less labor intesive than pure animation.

[C0LL1N]

Its amazing to know that you are looking at real footage of the real 1899, not a movie, a real shot of it.

[fluxstringer]

Made 112 years ago it is surprising this exists at all. It is harder to figure frame rate and factors such as film exposure speed in the days of early film chemistry and hand cranked cameras but some digital reworking could bring it more to life. Slowed down to match a piece by Debussy or put to a dance hall song of the era at this fast tempo the artistry of this dance would be revived .

[TheIxtlan]

That Danse Serpentine - Loie Fuller born 1862 and died 1928. Her dance in the video clip reminds me of butterfly and jelly fish dancing in slow motion.

[InvaderJem]

Remind me to watch this again when I'm stoned.

[HotPerogi]

dang, they didn't even have adderall at that time. wtf i'd get soooo bored.

[christopheBisson]

umm, just a point, it was women who painted this frame by frame...

[colinchick69]

@christopheBisson True, befor the invention of color photographic film, my mother hand tinted studio portraits.

[craigkier]

I had always thought that this was Loie Fuller- but M Tavernier says it's not so. I'm guessing all the early films purporting to show her (all look like versions of this one) really are an unknown dancer.

[ItsumoYume]

I like O_O

[cd150155youification]

Excelentní! Excellent!

[EyeLean5280]

Perhaps this influenced the artists working on the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds sequence from Yellow Submarine. I'm thinking particularly of the bit with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, where he swings her up into the air and her gown keeps changing colors.

From other parts of that song, you can see the animators were very familiar with early film history, making use of some pretty obscure (even back then) stuff.

[KawhackitaRag]

I seriously cannot fathom what the first audiences to see this must have thought - it must have totally blown their mind.

[KawhackitaRag]

I swear, if only the guys who build model structures out of toothpicks would spend their time hand-coloring copies of black-and-white movies... the world would be a better place.

[317East32nd]

@KawhackitaRag, I smiled when I read that!

[MeaghanEdwards]

@KawhackitaRag  Amen!

[zeshiba]

COOOLORED

[labruixamaduixa]

She is Loïe Fuller?

[phillitupp]

This is beautiful.

[Scoobydoo16x]

Does anyone know what the piano bit in the background was? :P

[SoSleepySoSueMe]

@Scoobydoo16x The first movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade

[Scoobydoo16x]

@SoSleepySoSueMe Thank you so much c:

[T3RRABYT3]

bkwekeda sneejudiofio

[sabinabarbara]

splendido

[spirmessi]

☻/

/▌

/ \ If you like to see the cinema history watch *BIRTH OF CINEMA* in youtube and enjoy.

[Starlight05]

so delicate and beautiful..

[EyeLean5280]

I so dislike the current practice of playing these old films at today's frame-per-second standard. It makes the motion unnaturally fast, annoying, graceless and unbeautiful.

I would so much rather the films were played at the speed they were meant to be. I'd put up with a little extra flickering to see more naturalistic motion.

thiscompost has posted this film (albeit an avante-guard reinterpretation of it) at the right speed. You can click to it over on the right, in "Related Videos."

[willis636]

except this video is still sick

[EyeLean5280]

How so?

[willis636]

i'm saying, regardless of the fact that this vido is sped up. the mix of the graceful movements and the changing colors makes it awesome.

[EyeLean5280]

Well, everyone's tastes are different.

Did you check out the other one.

[PrimeraxEspadaxStark]

That is very beautiful, it must have been alot of effort on their part.

[EyeLean5280]

The Lumiere Brothers did a lot of wonderful short films like this - mostly slice-of-life stuff - that gives us a nice glimpse into the late nineteenth century.

[misenabyme]

If you like this you would like the 1893/1894 Edison copy of this woman dancing. Released as 'Anabelle Dances and Dances'. An even earlier performance, actually proformances as they were captured multiple times. Dickenson shot her for the Mutoscope in 1896.

[revhjohnson]

dreamy

[aaronpriven]

Clearly this is the inspiration for the Silver Chalice from the Atari 2600 "Adventure" game.

[ylfz]

this is great!!!

[BloodyRoxas13]

Hand painted... Hand painted frame by frame... SERIOUSLY... THIS GUY HAS A LOT OF TIME IN HIS HANDS... And he made it really beautiful...

[brsaunders]

Woman! According to the narrator, it was a woman that probably did this handiwork.

[zeshiba]

@BloodyRoxas13 hand colored

[lbnancy]

@BloodyRoxas13

I've always disliked that idea of someone (usually an artist) "having a lot of time on his hands". We all have a lot of time on our hands, it just depends on how you use it.

[Dabke]

really amazing all that old dances... in that era!!!

just lovely!

[Leopardite]

this is really one of the most beautiful shorts i have ever seen.

[alghadi]

@Leopardite

it is not only the most beautiful but still good that can be compared to 2000th short film

by the way its in 1899

[cunoamit]

too much for my eyes

[danzaorientale]

favoloso!!:-)

[lucilavilela]

Who's talking??

[317East32nd]

Bertrand Tavernier, film director (and President of the Intitut Lumière).

[marinatwelve]

I wonder what it would look like at the NORMAL (16 f/s) speed it was filmed in.

[sarahbellydancer]

thanks for posting. i have been looking for this!

[nanogirl]

YEs!

[meranmer]

wow

que lindo

el cambio de colores¡¡

[HCShannon]

or go to Google video and watch vie_et_passion_du_christ-1905.­avi

That is another hand-colored film from 1905

[SteveRamone0075]

wow, that was amazing. kind of hypnotic.

[pushmusic]

how does the color change this is crazy!

[317East32nd]

The black-and-white film was hand-colored, one frame at a time. A lot of work, but worth it.

[dautzen]

I'm doing a report on this wonderful dance. But I have a question for you: Did it really look like that - it flows so wonderfully. I cant imagine how you'd do that with just some lights.

Thank you for uploading this video!