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Birthplace of cinema and pétanque
Cinema was born in La Ciotat in 1895, an invention of the Lumière brothers. La Ciotat's love of the silver screen has continued ever since. The town has again and again featured in movies, and also lays claim to the oldest cinema in the world, the Eden.
An invention that just runs and runs Cinema came into being in 1895 at the La Ciotat residence of the Lumière family. Louis and Auguste Lumière were developing their new invention, the "Lumière Cinematograph", a combined film camera and projector system. Their first projection showed scenes from local life - a train pulling into the station, bathers on the beach or local residents walking out in the park at La Ciotat. The brothers had just filed a patent for their invention, and wanted to demonstrate it to an audience of eminent scientific minds. The first ever projection took place on 22nd March 1895 in Paris, followed by a private showing in the family residence in La Ciotat in September of the same year.
The first public showing was on 28th December 1895 in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris, a historic event. Thirty five audience members were dazzled by a series of ten short films, each less than a minute long. The clips showed workers leaving the Lumière family works or the train arriving in La Ciotat. Entry to this historic viewing cost FF 1.02, and popularity was immediately assured, although legend has it that some audience members fled, fearing that the train would run them over. Cinema had been born, not just as a technological invention, but as an emotive experience.
The event was largely ignored by the press, but the invention became known on the 'grapevine', and soon there were hundreds crowding to get into the Grand Café for the regular showings. The Lumière brothers' invention was hailed as a success not only in Paris, but in London and New York.
More than 1,425 clips and short movies were filmed by the brothers, and are still well-preserved. Some decry a lack of technical inventiveness, with much of the footage filmed as a single, static shot, but over a hundred of the clips feature travelling shots, which were referred to as 'panoramas' at the time. Some reels are precursors to the art of film editing, put together from multiple shots. The world's first cinema, the Eden, opened on the edge of the town, near what are now the new docks.
La Ciotat continued to attracted big names in French cinema, and movies are still filmed here every year.
The Eden cinema was bought by the town council in 1993, with the aim of restoring its glories, under the chairmanship of Bertrand Tavernier. It now features a movie museum, a projection room, displays about the Lumière brothers and their cinematograph, and a further area for other exhibitions.
La Ciotat is famous for yet another invention - the Provençal game of pétanque, born in 1907. Boules was already popular, played in a traditional form. One of the town's stalwart players, Jules Le Noir, found that as his arthritis took its toll, he could no longer play as he once had. He took to playing on his own, throwing the boules without moving from the spot he was standing. His friends decided to show their solidarity by playing according to his 'rules', marking out a circle on the ground where the thrower had to stand. The traditional form of boules, involved a run-up, but La Ciotat soon took to this new version. The name 'pétanque' comes from the fact that the feet are rooted to the spot ('pieds tanqués'). The first tournament was held in 1910 on the very square where the game had been born. Since 2003, pétanque has been recognised as a 'high-level sport' by the French government.
