good back-story, and good acting

Excellent, a Must See

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

As a huge film buff, I'm a little surprised myself at the rating I gave it.The reason I gave it a 5 is because I believe the ratings system is to determine the QUALITY of the movies, and not to signify the importance of them. Yes, this film is a classic and a technical masterpiece (considering the time, at least). But as a fully-fledged MASTERPIECE, I would think before calling it that. Yes, film had only recently been discovered, and people were looking for new ways to use film, so storytelling was still out of frame. (Amazing, right?) So at the time, the very notion of a moving resemblance of real life being thrown on to a wall from a hypermagical light machine was enough to instantly consider any film a masterpiece. But now, 120 years later, we've come to find so much more can be done with film and storytelling, that this seems just a memento of a then-blossoming technique which would soon change the face of media, period.But to the point.Would you call cave art from 10,000 years ago "Great Art"? Important, yes, but great? It was great at the time when humanity found the now taken-for-granted freedom of expression, but looking from today's standpoint, it's just some sloppy sketches of buffaloes, humans, and God knows what else. Same goes here. It is undeniably a monumentally important film that should never be forgotten, but calling it a good movie would just be silly.So it's easy to give a 10 out of duty to history, and I'm not blaming any of you for doing that. I'm just stating my opinion on the film, and my reasons for it. I have given half of the rating grace to signify what the film represents for people then and now, but for the other 5 stars, I just can't bring myself to call it a genuinely good movie.g'day

A train arrives at a station. And changes everything.There isn't a lot to really say about L'arrivée d'un train a La Ciotat as a film itself. It's under a minute and shows a train pull up at a busy station. But what it signifies is another thing altogether. When we see that train come closer and closer until it stops in the station, on a surface level we watch a train arrive but it actuality what we are really witnessing is cinema arrive. This short film may not be the earliest movie but it is the first iconic image of the moving picture age.Auguste and Louis Lumière weren't really artists. Their early films don't stand up to the highly imaginative work of George Méliès for example. But they still remain enormously important cinema giants. Not for the content of their films but for the fact that they kicked things off in the first place and produced the first iconic moment in cinema history. And for this reason L'arrivée d'un train a La Ciotat will always be remembered. Everyone who has a love of cinema should really take a minute of their time to pay homage to the first moment in an amazing journey.

Arrival of the Mail Train, The (1896) **** (out of 4) Even though this film is over one-hundred years ago you can't help but remember that it contains one of the most famous shots and perhaps the first movie myth. The film, running under a minute, features the camera pointing at a train as it arrives in a station and then we see people getting off it. According to legend, the first time this film was shown in theaters people were in such fear that they were going to be hit by the train that they ran out of there in a near riot mode. Whether or not this is true is something we'll never really know but it's fun to believe it. The film certainly doesn't offer up anything in terms of entertainment but as a history lesson there's not too many bigger.

This is one of the Lumière brothers' many actualitiés (actuality films), which other filmmakers were quick to emulate and which is a precursor to the full documentary. The Lumière brothers made it shortly after their original program débuted. It displays one of the more salient instances of positioning of the camera--the framing--of the early single-shot films. Most often, as one can see in the Lumière film "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory" (1895), the framing in a film is perpendicular to the action. This was always the case with the Edison Company films trapped within the "Black Maria" studio. The lightweight and mobile Cinématographe, however, not only allowed the Lumière brothers to invent the actuality film, but also to introduce novel ways of framing and presenting action in and out of frame.In this actuality film, "The Arrival of the Train", the train approaches the station and just passes the camera while slowing down--creating a diagonal framing and recognition of off-screen space as the locomotive passes out of frame. Additionally, the subject appears to be undirected (as opposed to many other early actuality films), and many of the people filmed ignore the camera. Some do notice it, however, reversing the subject of the film back upon itself as is so often the case in these early actualitiés.This framing of action must have been quite a marvel when first seen. Although the apocryphal story of it creating terror among early audiences has been a matter of recent debunking, it was a legend created early on. In 1901, Robert W. Paul parodied such a reaction in "The Countryman and the Cinematograph", as did Edwin S. Porter in his 1902 remake "Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show". Moreover, accounts of physical reactions (although not screaming and running to the back of the theatre) to early films are numerous, such as spectators supposedly fearing their feet might become wet while watching Paul's "Rough Sea at Dover" (1895). It seems more likely that the response to these films was more akin to modern audiences' response to shocking scenes in horror films, with the added marvel of witnessing the invention of a new visual art form.Another historically interesting aspect of this film is that it features a train as its subject, which would become very popular in early cinema. They, too, were a technological marvel, as well as a source of movement and action. Film historians have also mentioned how looking out a train window provides moving pictures associative to cinema. Shortly after this film, the phantom ride genre would include the camera attached to the locomotive to create a point-of-view perspective from the locomotive as it passed through landscapes and tunnels. George Albert Smith created one of the first multi-shot films "A Kiss in the Tunnel" (1899) by placing a staged scene within a phantom ride film. It's interesting how trains have inspired advancements in movies.Additionally, in my screening of early silent films, I've noticed many allusions to the Lumière films. Their decisions on such matters as framing became part of film grammar and style. The diagonal framing of a train here has especially become a staple. For example, William K.L. Dickson, for American Mutoscope, imitated it in his "Empire State Express" (1896), but movies made much later have demonstrated this early film's influence. Although most movies afterwards last much longer than 50 seconds and one shot, few have left as great an impression.(Note: This is the seventh in a series of my comments on 10 "firsts" in film history. The other films covered are Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888), Blacksmith Scene (1893), The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895), La Sortie des usines Lumière (1895), L' Arroseur arose (1895), Panorama du Grand Canal vu d'un bateau (1896), Return of Lifeboat (1897) and Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900).)