Avenue de l'Opéra | 1900 | Documentary, Comedy Short

Title: Avenue de l'Opéra | 1900 | Documentary, Comedy Short Director: Alice Guy Studio: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont Release Date: 1900 Runtime: 1 Format: Silent, black-and-white Country: France Language: Silent Genres: Documentary, Comedy, Short --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Street panorama at Place de l’Opéra 00:00:15 Pedestrians and carriages in motion 00:00:30 Omnibuses and crossroads activity 00:00:45 Reverse-motion closing view --- Summary: A brief street scene captures the bustle of Paris’s Avenue de l’Opéra at the turn of the twentieth century. The action is presented in reverse, turning everyday movement of pedestrians, carriages, and omnibuses into a visual gag while still offering a snapshot of urban life circa 1900. --- Background: Directed for Gaumont by Alice Guy, a pioneer of early cinema, this one-minute actuality reflects contemporary experimentation with reversing film to achieve comic effects. The title has been preserved and circulated in modern anthologies, including the Gaumont Treasures set released by Kino in 2009. --- Trivia: The film was directed by Alice Guy, widely recognized as one of the earliest women filmmakers and a key figure in Gaumont’s formative years. The reverse projection was intentional, using a simple technical trick to generate humor from ordinary street traffic. The location is the central Paris thoroughfare linking the Louvre area to the Palais Garnier, an iconic setting frequently documented by early filmmakers and photographers. Avenue de l’Opéra has been included in the curated Gaumont Treasures home-video collection, helping reintroduce Alice Guy’s early work to modern audiences. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: 1900 Original Studio / Distributor: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont Copyright Status: Public Domain Renewal: No --- Hashtags: AvenuedelOpéra AliceGuy Gaumont SilentFilm FrenchCinema PublicDomain 1900 EarlyCinema Actuality ShortFilm This video was sourced from Internet Archive. Originally uploaded by jake@archive.org. https://archive.org/details/silent-avenue-de-lopra