The late 19th-century Luminous Pantomimes from Emile Reynaud’s optical theatre have been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register of documentary heritage on the joint proposal of the Czech Republic and France.
Prague, Oct 16 (CTK) – The late 19th-century Luminous Pantomimes from Emile Reynaud’s optical theatre, a predecessor of film, have been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register of documentary heritage on the joint proposal of the Czech Republic and France, the Czech Culture Ministry has announced.
This is the Czech Republic’s fifth entry into the World Memory list.
The Luminous Pantomimes consist of two well-preserved optical theatre works, Autour d’une cabine and Pauvre Pierrot!, which preceded the birth of film.
The Prague-seated National Technical Museum in Prague owns one of the pantomimes that was donated to Czechoslovakia in 1926.
Among the artists and inventors who tried to set pictures in motion in the 19th century, France’s Reynaud achieved success with his praxinoscope.
He changed another circular rotational device’s construction also to include inner mirrors, by which he markedly improved the contrast and purity of the moving picture and enabled its simultaneous watching by more spectators.
After a series of short gags, Reynaud presented three films, or Luminous Pantomimes, to the public on October 28, 1892.
The performances gained popularity and were seen by over half a million people by the end of the century.
Their fame, however, was soon overshadowed by the cinematograph of the Lumiere brothers, first presented in late 1895. Broken by the shrinking audience, Reynaud never developed his invention any more.
His contribution to the animated film and its popularity is unchallengeable, however.
UNESCO’s Memory of the World list was established in the 1990s with the aim to preserve documents that should be part of mankind’s heritage. The Czech National Library played an important role in the launch of the project. The list includes about 250 items including library documents, audio, video and archive materials.
Apart from the Luminous Pantomimes, the Czech items on the list are three literary items from the National Library and a collection of Czech and Slovak samizdat newspapers from 1948-1989.
