Trysts, Movies, Chess - all-in-one thread.

I'm a skeptic when it comes to coincidences, but sometimes such things do occur.  Last evening I exchanged a few words with trysts. During that same time I came across an image that intrigued me. Now, I know that trysts is a movie buff and perhaps an expert in that area.  I don't watch films and barely know one actor or actress. I'm perhaps a total know-nothing in that field.  But the photo I came across indirectly involves the beginings of cinematography.

A short time ago I wrote an article on a very peculiar British chess player named Wordsworth Donisthorpe (see Adonis). Besides being a leading London chess player, he was also a barrister, an inventor and one of the earliest cinematographic pioneers.  In 1876 he applied for a patent on his invention, the Kinesigraph, which was a method of making moving photographs. While he also anticipated the invention of talking pictures, he produced the first motion picture ever taken of the city of London. (see HERE). He finally abondoned his project due to seemingly insurmountable difficulties. 

Around the same time Donsthorpe was submitting his patent application for his moving pictures apparatus, two far more imporant cinematographic pioneers, the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, were posing for the photograph below. The Lumières also invented a cinema devise in 1895 called the Cinématographe that was so far superior to what had already been developed by that time that their maiden movie, "La Sortie de usines Lumière", is considered by experts to be the first real motion picture. While most of their films seem to have been of a mundane or practical nature, HERE is a more creative endeavor, "Le Squelette joyeux," 1897.

This is the photo of the Lumière brothers playing chess sometime around 1874-6.

Auguste on the left - Louis on the right.

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I thought Friese-Greene beat him to it in 1890....?

It seems there were many pioneers, but the Lumières were the first to produce what we would recognize as a movie presented to an audience. But, as already noted, I'm fairly ignorant in this area.

Does anyone have an idea what that trophy, if it is a trophy, might be?

It seems like a figurine on top of another type of decoration. The right side of the image shows a similar silhouette.

The blurry thing on the right looks a bit like some sort of hookah.  The trophy thing seems to have a bust (of Morphy?) on top.

The only thing I can tell from the photograh is that Auguste looks to be winning.

He does look smug. But I have the feeling little Louie is fixing to wipe that look off his face.

           I don't know about the picture, but I'd like to give kudos to Trysts. Last year, she said, "Oh I don't watch the Oscar's".  I thought, WTF?  This year, she was giving us a play-by-play commentary on the whole ceramony.  Good for you Trysts. That a girl. 1000 bonus points!

Ha! When I first read the title I immediately thought: Secret affairs and movies? Sarah never writes about movies!

Excellent article as always:) On posts #2 and #3, are there pictures there or something? Because they're not showing up on my screen?

Sarah: Is the "figurine'' you are asking about the one at the top of the vase standing in the center backgroud?

I wonder if the inventors of movies ever thought that no-one in the world could ever make a movie that accurately protrays Chess?

Have you heard the story about "L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat"?

"The film is associated with an urban legend well known in the world of cinema. The story goes that when the film was first shown, the audience was so overwhelmed by the moving image of a life-sized train coming directly at them that people screamed and ran to the back of the room."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Arriv%C3%A9e_d'un_train_en_gare_de_La_Ciotat#Contemporary_reaction

Not surprising, I've seen people dodging in 3D movies nowadays (yes, I've watched Avatar! Not my fault! I was forced!).

Probably the most famous movie director who played chess was Stanley Kubrick. I found an article about this on Susan Polgar's blog

And probably the most famous movie scene with chess is from Ingmar Bergman's movie "The Seventh Seal", where Antonius Block plays against Death!

C'mon!

That's it.  I was joking about it possibly being Morphy, but the way the head tilts looks familiar , yet I can't place it.

:-) It's a jester I think (le fou) with its hat bearing jingles.