Views Lumière

Scenes of the movement of the streets in big cities and small towns all over the world, shot with a still camera. Or rather stopped cinematographer. People, trains, carriages, automobiles. For years, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, considered the fathers of cinema, recorded with the invention they called “cinematography“, short documentaries about three minutes long, with scenes of everyday life depicting mainly the impact of modernity on major European capitals.

Now, 20 of these documentaries, known as “Views Lumière” and who are under the custody of the Lumière Institute in France, visiting for the first time Brazil in the exhibition “ViewsLumière”, which honors the 450th anniversary of Rio de Janeiro and the 120 years of cinema. The exhibition also displays amazing scenes of Rio today, recorded on mobile phones by students of the Institute Benjamin Constant. Idealization and curated by Aida Marques, the show has set design and sound Doris Rollemberg ambiance of Marcos de Souza.

The first two films recorded by the Lumière brothers – the arrival of a train at the station of La Ciotat and output of workers Lumière Factory – welcome visitors in the space that gives access to the first screening room, which will also be displayed at the same time and in 12 different screens, several films that make up “Views Lumière”. Marcos de Souza, a musician and composer, who is responsible for the exposure of sound effects, reveals that the sound ambiance of the show evokes various types of sounds, including musical passages that refer to the time when the films were made, but nothing too explicit, just to situate and engage visitors. The opening for guests, Marcos de Souza will be the piano, live, to provide the public with a “trip to the cinema early, in the company of brothers Lumière”.

The set designer Doris Rollemberg account the whole ambiance seeks to create a bond of memory with the contemporary. There is a kind of “corridor” linking the first room, which hosts the “Views Lumière”, the second room, which evokes the Rio de Janeiro yesterday and today.This hall houses a public address system which stimulates the journey that the exhibition proposes a meeting with the Rio de Janeiro, which occurs in two stages. The first is made of old movies of the city, photos, colorized images (colored with transparent ink, as was done before color photography), postcards. The second point is the current: in space called “Minute Lumière”, on mobile screens around the room, visitors can learn unpublished views on today’s Rio.