For the first time this year at the 13th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival, almost 100 short films from world famous masterpieces were showcased on December 8, in the Madinat Souk Theatre at Madinat Jumeirah.
Bringing the allure of old cinema, dating back to 1895, and blending it with the future of cinema, the films livened up the audience with the Charlie-Chaplin humour, simplicity and the comprehension of the “black and white” reel.
Distinguished guest from France, Thierry Fremaux, the General Director of the Cannes Film Festival and France’s Institut Lumiere in Lyon, presented the exhilarating composition of the 98 conserved films. It was his first time at Diff and in Dubai — a visit he describes as his “moment of the year”.
The films were restored in 4K for better resolution. The screening was held in honour of the Lumiere Brothers’ bequest to Mankind: Unforgettable images and a glimpse of France and the world in the early 20th century. The short films were divided into chapters and screened to a fascinated audience.
The Lumiere Brothers, Louis and Auguste Lumiere, are known as the pioneers for revolutionising the industry. The brothers invented the motion picture camera, the “Cinematograph”, that lent its name to an exciting form of art and entertainment: the cinema.
“Each chapter is just one of the faces of the Lumiere work and when I say Lumiere, I don’t intend to only refer to the Lumiere Brothers, but this applies to all the cinematographers who worked with them at that time,” said Fremaux.
Celebrating over 120 years of cinema, the screened films were silent films in which Fremaux narrated the action as it happened, while seated on stage — something quite unfamiliar in today’s technology-savvy era. However, it enabled the viewers to rediscover and interrelate with the current cinema techniques.
For example, the Lumiere Brothers, used stable staging scenes whilst shooting, just as cinematographers today would do using tripods. Also, in travelling scenes, the cameras were placed on moving vehicles with steady panned shots.
Fremaux, said that apart from these techniques, the addition of special effects in the form of colour saturation and edits is not something so new. It existed even during that period.
“It should be noted that the cinema world has evolved now into an art form and the credit goes to the two brothers, for paving the way for popularisation of the medium,” he said.
— The Young Journalist Award (YJA) at Diff is a training programme for high school students who are aspiring writers and reporters. Eight students are competing at the festival this year between December 7-14. One winner will secure a monthlong internship with Gulf News.
