AllMovie

The man whom many claim to be the father of modern cinema, filmmaker Louis Lumière stunned an unexpecting public on December 8, 1895, when he made film history by screening a series of ten motion pictures that left audiences breathless. Ushering the familiar still photography form into exciting and unpredictable new directions, Louis and his brother Auguste brought audiences exotic locales that they might otherwise never get to see, and showed them images so vivid that they almost appeared to burst from the screen. Lumière racked up a staggering 75 directorial credits between 1892 and 1901 (though many were simply static shots that lasted less than a minute). He eventually abandoned feature films after claiming that there was no future for the medium and returned to producing the still photography equipment that formed the backbone of his reputation.