Auguste and Louis Lumière Cinematographe film can

A prized relic from the very first days of cinema in Australia, this film can once housed a roll of unexposed 35mm nitrate Lumière film. The French-born Lumière Brothers were pioneers of modern cinema. They presented the first public screening of motion pictures on 28 December 1895 at the Grand Café in Paris using their new-fangled cinematograph. They showed 10 short films, including Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, which depicts a train pulling up to the platform. The realism of the moving images was so startling that viewers reportedly fled to the back of the theatre to avoid the oncoming train! The first public film screening in Australia was held by magician Carl Hertz in Melbourne on 22 August 1896 using a copy of the cinematograph produced by the Lumières.