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Title: Procession at Séville and Bullfighting Scenes

Description

These short films by the Lumière brothers depict two traditional events in Seville, Spain, as they appeared in the last years of the 19th century: Holy Week (Semana Santa) and bullfighting (la corrida de toros). The Holy Week procession, held during the week before Easter, included a magnificent spectacle of ornate floats (pasos) carried around the streets of the city by teams of bearers (costaleros). The procession was followed by penitents (nazarenos), caped and hooded in theatrical garb. The film that follows shows matadors fighting the bulls in the arena, assisted by an entourage of flagmen, sword pages, and lancers mounted on horseback, with cheering crowds in the background. Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (1864-1948) were the developers of the Cinématographe, an elegant and technically simple projection device that revolutionized the early motion picture industry. The Lumières sent crews around the world to record a wide array of scenes and images. The Lumière company catalog grew to include some 1,200 titles, all of which were available for purchase and which were shown to audiences in many countries.