Louis le Prince made the world’s first film, claims David Nicholas Wilkinson, who makes a convincing documentary argument that Leeds is the cradle of cinema
David Nicholas Wilkinson is a man on a mission. He is the Leeds-born film distributor who, for years, has been struggling to convince the world that the first ever film was made in Leeds. Never mind Thomas Edison; never mind the Lumière brothers and their train arriving in La Ciotat; never mind William Friese-Greene. The real pioneer was Frenchman Louis le Prince, who filmed a scene on Leeds bridge and in a Leeds garden, where some Victorians skittishly frolicked – in 1888. But Le Prince did not have the Lumières’ showmanship or Edison’s legal, patent-enforcing muscle; he died before he could develop a projection technique, and so faded from history. There was something else. In 1890, he boarded a train at Dijon and disappeared; his body was never found.
David Nicholas Wilkinson is a man on a mission. He is the Leeds-born film distributor who, for years, has been struggling to convince the world that the first ever film was made in Leeds. Never mind Thomas Edison; never mind the Lumière brothers and their train arriving in La Ciotat; never mind William Friese-Greene. The real pioneer was Frenchman Louis le Prince, who filmed a scene on Leeds bridge and in a Leeds garden, where some Victorians skittishly frolicked – in 1888. But Le Prince did not have the Lumières’ showmanship or Edison’s legal, patent-enforcing muscle; he died before he could develop a projection technique, and so faded from history. There was something else. In 1890, he boarded a train at Dijon and disappeared; his body was never found.
- 7/2/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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