I think the Lumiere Manifesto has an outlook on film that is similar to painters that paint oil paintings, or musicians who write classical pieces. The Manifesto says to me that it is trying to resurrect the style that the Lumiere brothers developed, much like painting in a way that Renaissance painters did, or writing music like that of Mozart or Beethoven. I feel like it is being done in an admiring sort of way, like making Lumiere’s is a way to pay homage to the first men to screen a film. I agree with this portion of the Manifesto, I feel like the idea of keeping the past alive through mimicking and admiration is a very positive way to find new things within the art, if it hadn’t been for Lumiere films many mundane tasks in society would be overlooked and disregarded.
I start to disagree with the Manifesto when it states that films should not have any editing, zoom, effects, audio or camera movement. The writer’s find these things to be distractions, however I find that depending on what it is the artist is trying to create these things can be necessary; for example a documentary that covers a person’s life will need transitions, one single shot of that would be a rather long and boring movie. The publisher’s of this website view Lumiere’s as films that are in a certain hierarchy above all others, due to the fact that they do not have any modifications to them. While it is great that they believe this, I think that movies as we view them today evolved out of what the Lumiere’s made, and although they are important for film history they shouldn’t be viewed as gods among films, and all movies with any type of modification shouldn’t be considered “insipid entertainment” or “propaganda”, movies with sound cause people to think too, and can invoke curiosity within viewers, even with it’s movement of the camera and audio. The writer’s of this Manifesto sound to me like they feel as if the Lumiere is a genre under attack by all others, which is not the truth. Lumiere’s can provide truth and meaning, as can all other films if they are made with the intention of presenting the truth, as we’ve seen a Lumiere can be manipulated, as any other kind of movie can.
Overall I guess I disagree with the Manifesto. Albeit I view Lumiere’s as an important style of movie in the history of the film industry, I don’t believe it ranks higher than any other kind of film. This probably comes from the fact that I like writing for film; and I cannot stand to think of all movies as a single shot with no more than a minute of action, with no audio or effects. I wouldn’t be able to survive if that was the case.
