Along with director Georges Méliès, the Lumiere brothers are considered the first filmmakers in world history. Their films have great value in the cinematic art of mankind, such asArrival of a TraingoodA Trip to the MoonThe works of Auguste and Louis Lumiere have become familiar learning materials for French students, they represent the cinematic thinking of filmmakers more than a century ago.
The following video of the streets of Paris is also a legacy of the Lumiere brothers. Restored, re-speeded and with added sound effects, this film offers a very clear view of famous locations in the French city of 100 years ago.
Notre Dame Cathedral in 1896
Alma Bridge in 1900
Champs-Élysées Avenue in 1899
Concorde Square in 1897
A fire brigade passes by in 1897.
The foot of the Eiffel Tower seen from the banks of the Seine in 1897
"Surely none of these people could have imagined that, 123 years in the future, someone would still be awake at 3am to watch them walking down the street" - quoted from a comment left under the video.
Additionally, we can also view these same footage after it has been colored byDenis Shiryaev, a Youtuber who specializes in restoring and re-creating classic videos. However, the color of the footage is only added to recreate the scene more vividly and is not representative of historical documents.
