40 Great Filmmakers Go Old School, Shoot Short Films with 100 Year Old Camera

In 1995, 40 inter­na­tion­al­ly-rec­og­nized direc­tors took part in a col­lab­o­ra­tive film, Lumiere & Com­pa­ny, that cel­e­brat­ed the first hun­dred years of cin­e­ma. In mak­ing the film, each direc­tor had to agree to four rules. They had to shoot a short film 1.) using the orig­i­nal Ciné­matographe invent­ed by the Lumière Broth­ers a cen­tu­ry before — the same cam­era that shot Work­ers Leav­ing The Lumière Fac­to­ry in Lyon (1895), one of the ear­li­est motion pic­tures ever made. Their films 2.) had to be one con­tin­u­ous shot and could­n’t be longer than 52 sec­onds; 3.) they could­n’t use syn­chro­nized sound or arti­fi­cial lights; and 4.) they were only allowed three takes, no more. As for the results? They ran the gamut. Above Chi­nese film­mak­er Zhang Yimou play­ful­ly shows a cou­ple dressed in tra­di­tion­al garb turn­ing into punk rock­ers, danc­ing to the sounds of Nir­vana atop the Great Wall of Chi­na. And below, we have: Wim Wen­ders revis­it­ing Berlin and the angels from Wings of Desire, his land­mark 1987 film.

David Lynch giv­ing us the essen­tials of a mur­der sto­ry in one minute. He called the short Pre­mo­ni­tions Fol­low­ing an Evil Deed.

Liv Ull­mann cap­tur­ing the leg­endary cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Sven Nykvist, famous for his work with Ing­mar Bergman. Here, Nykvist films Ull­man­n’s cam­era as it films him.

Acclaimed Iran­ian direc­tor Abbas Kiarosta­mi using extreme min­i­mal­ism to tell the tale of unre­quit­ed love.

And Spike Lee giv­ing us a retro home movie.

Source: Roger Ebert.com