Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

not as good as all the hype

disgusting, overrated, pointless

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

First I must say that is not oldest movie ever. Oldest movie ever is 'Man walking around the corner', directed and recorded by the same person - Louise Le Prince. Opposed to 'Man walking around the corner' movie, this movie has all frames in good condition, and you can see what is happening in the movie. I do not agree with the fact that is oldest movie ever, but I can agree that is first movie which features more than one person, and that is first movie ever which shows - woman !Louise Le Prince would be very happy if he can see what he developed.

Le Prince had apparently been playing around with the idea of creating a motion camera for some time. This was done in a garden with his son, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and another not-completely-identified lady. Sarah (the mother-in-law) died ten days after this was made. Le Prince would disappear two years later. His son would be dead a short time after that.Artistically speaking, there's not much else to say about this other than, "I think it works, Mr. Le Prince!"There's really no telling how many films were shot by Le Prince. Four exist here on IMDb. None of them are terribly impressive outside of historical context, but really? You're watching people walk around roughly 130 years ago. That alone is pretty impressive.

Just when you think you know something you must think again, see things from a different perspective, another angle. While the Lumière brothers practically invented the film putting their mark on Historical books about cinema, before them there were some experiments made by pioneer Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince in only one year, (four films made in 1888, then the man mysteriously vanished), and he's regarded by some film historians as the real inventor of this art form. What are my thoughts about him? Well, I make the same comparison between the aviation pioneers Santos Dumont and the Wright brothers being Dumont like Lumières and the Wright brothers in the same position as Le Prince: it doesn't matter who came first with the invention but yes the one who showed it to a larger audience first. That was the case with Dumont, and that was the case with Lumières since Le Prince films were only shown to small audiences in factories, never on a theater. However, the two second moving pictures on paper film Le Prince gave us resist until today and those really, really short films are the oldest surviving frames of an era and it is good to know that they're still with us.What happens here? The director films his family for two seconds in a humored situation like having one of the family members strangely walking in circles. They're not characters, they're real and they make something funny. Way before many mockumentaries out there, huh? The problem of watching this is that...it goes so fast! Blink or miss! I'm giving 9 to this for the fact of simply existing in our times and I hope it lasts for many generations and years to come. 9/10

It's amazing what you can find in just two measly seconds of grainy film. As our lead character (I think he was the hero) starts walking to the right, where the movie eventually comes to a conclusion, you see a woman. She has a beard! And she turns as the lead character walks by her. I'd turn around as well if I was a shapely woman (check out the funbags on that hamhock!) with foot long facial hair. And to make things even worse, you got another goonball (who I think was the villain) doing the wee-wee dance around a bonnet wearing ninny. In a matter of two seconds, you see two incredible displays of humor.....now that's saying something. Or you could just look at it and think someone accidentally pressed play on the camcorder. Either or!