Filming through the Mirror
(originally posted on IMDb 25 January 2009)

This is one of the most interesting short actualities included in "The Lumière Brothers' First Films" (1996). It's the earliest film I know of where the act of filming is shown. Two years later, in "Lord Roberts' Visit to Manchester", by Mitchell and Kenyon's company, the cameraman seemingly inadvertently captures another film crew filming the same event. As of yet, I've seen nothing of this kind of self-referential film-making in fictional, narrative films until the 1910s, such as in "The Cameraman's Revenge" (1912), "The Evidence of the Film" (1913), "Mabel's Dramatic Career" (1913), "Behind the Screen" (1916), "A Girl's Folly" (1917) and a few others.

In this film, the filming of another cameraman filming the same event--a street parade in Paris--seems intentional; it's the subject of this less-than-a-minute short actuality film. Both cameramen involved were working for the Lumière Company, although their identities are unknown, and each film was sold as an individual subject in the company's catalogues. Besides being a fascinating example of early self-reflexive film-making, the picture offers a glimpse into a bygone era, including a bygone era of film-making. It's a rather humdrum parade of flowered automobiles otherwise.

(Included on my list of 25 Best Films of the 19th Century.)