Mysteries in the Archives

1897: President Félix Fauré Takes a Trip (3x2)

Air date: Sep 22, 2012

April 1897. For the first time in the history of very young cinema, a cameraman is invited to follow a president on an official trip. When French President Felix Faure arrives in western France after a nine-day journey by ship and train, Charles Moisson captures his performance for eternity. He just has a year of experience behind the camera. His works are called "living photographs", the apparatus is called the cinematograph – an invention of the Lumiere brothers that is captivating more and more people. And the President? Does he understand that his picture is being recorded "in motion"? Has he ever seen "living photographs"? Why did he choose Charles Moisson for this work? And how did it happen that this political event of all things became the subject of one of the first major cinema reports?