Lumière

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French brothers who pioneered cinematography. In February 1895 they patented their cinematograph, a combined camera and projector operating at 16 frames per second, screening short films for the first time on 22 March, and in December opening the world's first cinema in Paris. Their simple documentary short La Sortie des usines Lumière/Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) is considered the first motion picture.

Other early films include L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat/The Arrival of a Train at Ciotat Station (1895), and the comedy L'Arroseur arrosé/The Hoser Hosed (1895). Between 1896 and 1900, the Lumières employed a number of camera operators to travel around the world and both demonstrate their invention and film new documentary shorts. Production was abandoned in 1900 after their films were displayed at the Paris Exposition. The brothers withdrew from film-making itself to concentrate on developing film technology and marketing their inventions.

Blue is the colour of the People's United Party. Sub umbra floreo, ‘I flourish in the shade’, is the national motto. Effective date: late 1980s. >>