Patineur Grotesque

Patineur Grotesque
Frame from the film Patineur Grotesque
CinematographyMarius Sestier
Production
company
Distributed byLumière Brothers
Release date
  • 28 March 1897 (1897-03-28) (Lyon)
CountryColony of New South Wales (Australia)
LanguageSilent

Patineur Grotesque was a one-minute film of a comic roller-skater.[1][2]

It featured "a bearded man in street clothes, smoking an outsize cigar... rollerskating in a park, watched by a crowd. He loses his hat and tumbles over clownishly when he tries to retrieve it. Jamming it back on his head, he gains his feet and moons his audience with a series of bows that reveal a white hand printed on his trousers, as if it’s gripping his buttocks. His finale is a dizzying series of spins – over 20 in a row – that show him to be an athletic performer dressed as a staid middle-aged man."[2]

Marius Sestier filmed the comic act in Prince Alfred Park in the South Sydney-Redfern area in 1896.[3][4][5] The film was not released until 1897 in Lyon, France.[1] The film was listed in the original Lumière Brothers catalogue as Lumière N°117 and N°73 in a newer catalogue.[6]

Sestier together with Henry Walter Barnett had made approximately 19 films in Sydney and Melbourne between October and November 1896, these being the very first films recorded in Australia.[1]

The film wouldn't be shown in Australia until 17 March 2010, where it was shown as a Sestier tribute by Canberra's Arc Cinema.[2][7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jackson, Sally (1 September 2010). "Patineur Grotesque: Marius Sestier and the Lumière Cinématographe in Australia, September–November 1896". Screening the Past. La Trobe University. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Mulready, R. (7 February 2025). The birth of silent comedy: Patineur Grotesque. NFSA. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  3. ↑ "Patineur grotesque Vue N° 117". Catalogue Lumiere. 28 March 1897. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  4. ↑ Jackson, Sally. "Patineur Grotesque". Australian Screen Online. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  5. ↑ Jackson, S. (15 June 2011). Sydney identified as location for earliest film. NFSA. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  6. ↑ Martin-Jones, Tony. "The Lumière film Patineur grotesque". apex net au. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  7. ↑ Jackson, S. (22 November 2010). Australia's earliest film. NFSA. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
External videos
video icon Patineur Grotesque (Catalogue Lumière)


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