Film history

La Sortie de l’usine Lumière à Lyon: early screenings and versions

The Cinématographe demonstration on 22 March and the first paid public screening on 28 December 1895 were separate milestones. Four versions of the factory exit have been recovered.

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Master hands
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La Sortie de l’usine Lumière à Lyon turns an everyday action into a moving image: workers pass through the gateway of the Lumière factory. Its history brings together the earliest Cinématographe screenings, different versions of the same scene and a memory that remains alive in Lyon.

Leaving work as a cinematic subject

Workers leave the Lumière factory in Lyon. Their passage through the gateway is the subject of the view: a scene of working life becomes an image that can be projected before an audience.

That subject does not correspond to a single interchangeable print. The factory exit was filmed in different versions, while no film material survives from the first Lumière view shot on celluloid.

Two different screenings in 1895

On 22 March 1895, Louis Lumière presented the Cinématographe and screened a factory exit before a restricted audience at the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale in Paris. On 28 December that year, the Lumières’ first paid public screening took place at the Grand Café in Paris.

Demonstrating a device and organising a commercial screening are different events. The former presents the possibility of projecting moving images before a group; the latter places that projection within a paid exhibition. Both dates belong to the history of 1895, but they do not describe the same premiere.

One scene, four recovered versions

Four versions of the factory exit have been recovered. Repetition of the subject does not make them a single film identical in every print: they are different versions of a recognisable scene, grouped under the title Sortie d’usine.

That title was common in Lumière screening programmes. Sales catalogues used a single designation for the factory exit; the historical name alone does not identify one of the four surviving versions.

An image that Lyon films again

On 19 March 2025, Lyon celebrated 130 years of Sortie d’usine with another day of filming at the original location. Around 2,500 people took part in the re-enactments organised by the Institut Lumière: families, school groups, associations and colleagues returned to stand before the camera.

The gathering is part of an annual event on 19 March. Repeating the factory exit connects the historical image with those who occupy the same space today: the cinematic subject continues, although the people and the times have changed.

Key takeaways

  • 22 March and 28 December 1895 mark a Cinématographe demonstration and the Lumières’ first paid public screening, respectively.
  • Four versions of the workers leaving the Lumière factory have been recovered.
  • Lyon re-enacts the factory exit every 19 March; around 2,500 people took part in the 2025 event.
A kitchen is a feminine thing
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Sources and filmography consulted

  1. La sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon (Court-métrage 1895). www.imdb.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  2. La sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon. archive.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  3. La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon Louis Lumière / 1895 Feliz .... www.facebook.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  4. Institut Lumière: Nouvelles sorties d’usines 2025. www.institut-lumiere.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  5. Vidéos de La sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon. www.senscritique.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  6. La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon (le Premier Film), 1895. zkm.de. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  7. File:La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon I 1895.webm. commons.wikimedia.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  8. Catalogue Lumière: Les sorties d’usine. catalogue-lumiere.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  9. www.institut-lumiere.org. www.institut-lumiere.org. Consulted 26 Oct 2026
  10. Institut Lumière: Le Cinématographe Lumière. www.institut-lumiere.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  11. La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon. fr.wikipedia.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  12. La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon (le Premier Film) 1895 .... www.youtube.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
  13. La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon. es.wikipedia.org. Consulted 23 Oct 2026
    Colaboradores de Wikipedia · La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon · CC BY-SA 4.0
  14. La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon (1895) : r/FIlm. www.reddit.com. Consulted 23 Oct 2026