Tracing the cats' first appearance in the history of film leads to Émile Reynaud’s proto-animation “The Two Impish Girls” (1878). The animal’s complex movements gave Reynaud ample opportunity to experiment with different drawing techniques, establishing the cat as a leading character.

The infinite motion sensation created by Émile Reynaud's Praxinoscope is best seen in his "Skipping Rope" (1878), a work that is designed to sell an invention that dared to make static images move with live-like speed. These images strip the complexity of animation to its bare bones.

In "Dzing. Boom. Boom!" (1878) Émile Reynaud combined the illusion of movement with that of sound to create a sensory experience. Each motion in this strip makes us sing in unison the words of the title ad infinitum. This is the most complete example of onomatopoeic cinema.

"The Tight-rope Dance" (1878) is a delicate work, reminding us that Émile Reynaud's animation experiments are a genuine delight. The geometrical lines create the perception of harmonious movement, seamlessly generating an internal score that accompanies the heroine’s dance.

The best film of 1874. Have you seen it? Reply in thread with your thoughts on it.
#CinemaHistory #BestFilm #BestMovie

In its day the moving images in Émile Reynaud's ""The Magic Rosette"" (1878) must have felt more exciting than some of the current developments in AI technology. Ground-breaking in form and content, this is one of the few pre-cinematic works of art that possess true magic within them.

A seminal work in the history of cinema, Eadweard Muybridge's "Sallie Gardner at a Gallop" (1878) is an early example of chronophotography which proved that motion images were not just a technical achievement, but a desirable product that enhances the appreciation of our world.

Émile Reynaud's "The Musician Monkey" (1878) is charming and simultaneously creepy, a proto-animation harking back to the heyday of magic lantern shows and aiming to entertain. This experiment with simian anthropomorphism announced to the world that pictures were no longer still.

“Learned Dogs” (1878) is one of the first ten strips to be exhibited by Émile Reynaud. The circular composition of the image set within a cylindrical setting provides a seamless sensation of infinite movement, making the animated dogs and the artiste appear almost life-like.

Pierre Janssen allowed the world to gaze at stellar objects for the first time on film in "The Passage of Venus" (1874). He gave hope that one day images in motion can become part of our quest to understand the world that we inhabit.