This document provides an analysis of the 1896 film "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" by the Lumiere brothers. It was the first ever documentary film made and surprised audiences who were unaccustomed to moving images. The film consists of a single continuous shot showing a train arriving at a station, where passengers disembark and embark, before the train departs. It has no editing, soundtrack, or narrative structure, simply capturing actual events as they unfolded without embellishment.

1. “Arrival of a train at la
ciotat” analysis
Jojo

2. Introduction to film
Arrival of a train at la ciotat is a film constructed by the
lumiere brothers in 1896 which was very unique at the
time as it was the first ever documentary film made. In
those times the audiences could barely see photos of
themselves and only had paintings. So when this short 55
second film was made, it came as a surprise and
audiences almost thought it was magic.

3. Editing/ Events/Narrative/
Shot
The image on my right is the opening picture of the film
which is then followed by a continuous shot so
eventually there was no editing that took place. These
images some up the whole of production which is why
we understand it is a continuous long shot. In these
events, A train arrives, stops then shortly after it
civilians either enter or leave the train and then the
film finishes. In this there is no voice over or even a
soundtrack meaning it was not narrated and there were
no small aspects of editing.

4. Actual events/no narrative
 You could clearly see that this is a real life production with actual people
performing the role of getting on or of a real train. The story lacked a clear
narrative structure. There is not a clear beginning, middle and end. This is
due to them not understanding how to construct a movie as it was the first
movie, and they did not have a clue on how to edit scenes.