← Back

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

1896
Directed by Louis Lumière
Documentary

Cast

Passengers and railway workers

Plot

In less than a minute, a steam train approaches the platform of the station at La Ciotat in southern France, stops, and passengers get on and off. Filmed by the Lumière brothers in 1895 and shown in 1896, it is one of the earliest films shown to a paying public. The famous legend that spectators ran from the screen in fear of the oncoming train is probably exaggerated, but the image of the train driving toward the audience at a diagonal has become a symbol of cinema's beginnings.

Sinekatalog’s take

The Lumière brothers' famous one-minute film shows a steam train pulling into a French station, passengers stepping on and off. Simple and astonishing, it is among cinema's first and most legendary moving images.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: about 7.3 / 10
Approximate IMDb score recalled from memory, not a live figure. Scores change over time.

If you liked this

Picked by director, genre, era and shared cast. Titles only, no spoilers.