As early as 1889, the physiologist Étienne- Jules Marey was making “chronophotographic” films on celluloid for scientific purposes, using cameras he designed himself. In 1898, he welcomed a young Irishman, Lucien Bull, to his laboratories in the Bois de Boulogne, where Bull set about working with Marey’s newest inventions: a 35mm reversible camera and an “electric rifle”, an ingenious device for 35mm film without perforations – a specimen of which is preserved at La Cinématheque française. Using these two devices, Marey and Bull shot a number of remarkable films. Olivier Auboin-Vermorel, a distinguished collector, bequeathed a sizeable collection of early films to the Cinématheque française before his death. Among the reels by Lumiere, Mélies and Parnaland are a few by Marey, including this 20-metre-long, unperforated 35mm negative, which he shot with Lucien Bull. Although the images are optically flawless, there is a slight problem with the equidistance between frames on the negative – that obstinate resistance to perforations, yet again! The scene is well composed: a horsedrawn double-decker bus sits immobile at the centre of the image, with a flurry of horse-drawn carriages and omnibuses swirling around it. Then the vehicle, loaded with passengers, finally sets off, headed either for Batignolles or Montparnasse Station, revealing in the background a swarm of chaos that is enough to make one’s head spin. Carriages, horses, pedestrians and wagons intersect in all directions. It seems that being a pedestrian in Paris in 1899 was far riskier than it is today!

Laurent Mannon