Conference - FROM EDISON AND LUMIERE TO THE LATEST FILM PROCESSES, J.P Verscheure

The first moving images were barely born in kinetoscopes when inventors from all over the world tried to project them onto a screen for a whole assembly. Les Frères Lumière opened the ball on December 28, 1895, on a small screen but quickly the idea of presenting films on large screens emerged. Le Palace with its large Cinemascope-type screen and its stereophonic sound installations offers us the possibility to retrace the adventure of image and sound with great authenticity. The great fundamental periods of its evolution will be illustrated using excerpts from original and significant films from the silent period to the advent of talkies with the first Vitaphone films. Then come the color processes and the arrival of the Cinerama and Cinemascope process which opens the period of the wide screen and stereophony. A real war of formats follows with VistaVision, Technirama, Superscope, Techniscope, etc., where each process offers directors new perspectives that we will highlight. The choice of the Palace is not trivial because in order to apprehend and fully understand this evolution, it was necessary to present the films on a screen that respects the history and evolution of theaters.