Auction date for world’s first film poster – which caused a sensation
IT WAS a poster that begat an art form. An advert printed and posted on walls in Paris for a series of one-minute films about life in the French capital is going under the auctioneer’s hammer.
Considered the world’s first film poster, it was made to promote the work of the Lumiere brothers, and attracted an audience of around 30 to the Grand Cafe in December, 1895.
Scenes, including a train pulling into a station, workers leaving a factory, a gardener and bathers in the sea, were projected on to a white canvas resembling a bed sheet at the world’s first cinema event.
The crowd was said to be “bewildered”, “amazed” and even “terrified” by what they saw, with some suspecting witchcraft and trickery. A woman uttered a shriek of terror at seeing the images, according to a journal from the time.
But experts at Sotheby’s, which is selling the poster, say the 20-minute event “changed the world”, “marking the public beginning of one of the most important cultural, artistic and social phenomena of the 20th century.”
After the first night caused a sensation, thousands flocked to the later screenings and within a few months, Lumiere cinemas had opened in all major international cities.
Screenings were also held for most heads of state, kings, queens and even the tsar of Russia.
Designed by French artist Henri Brispot, the poster depicts a throng of people waiting to enter the first night.
It is expected to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000 at auction.
Sotheby’s previous highest price for a film poster was King
Kong, at £42,000.