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Although no-one will ever come up with a definitive answer as to who "invented" the cinema (probably because no one single person was responsible), Louis Lumiere has one of the strongest claims to the title - for it was he (with his brother Auguste) who invented the cinematographe: a machine that combined the functions of camera and projector and was thus able to project films onto a screen to an audience. The invention was patented on February 13 1895, and a programme of short films directed and photographed by Louis was first unveiled to the general public on 28 December 1895 - a date that many historians claim to be the birthdate of the cinema as we know it. The cinematographe was an immediate hit, and its influence was colossal - within just two years, the Lumiere catalogue included well over a thousand films, all of them single-shot efforts running under a minute, and many photographed by cameramen sent to various exotic locations. Although Lumiere also staged some fictional scenes, the bulk of the work bearing his name would nowadays be described as documentary reportage. In common with many cinema pioneers, he perversely saw no future for the medium, and retired in 1900 to make still photographic equipment -the field in which he originally made his reputation. (from IMDB)
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