A short black and white film of the busy Whitehall Street in New York.

Alexandre Promio

New York, Whitehall Street

New York: Whitehall Street

Alexandre Promio is arguably the best filmmaker the Lumières had in their stable of representatives that went abroad to shoot travelogue films. His films show a true eye for detail and composition. To verify this, one only needs to look at his street scenes, the finest of a genre that is rarely interesting to modern viewers beyond academic or historical value.

Whitehall Street is one of several films Promio made in New York City in 1896. This one, shot near Broadway in Manhattan, differs from his other NYC films in that it follows a diagonal composition (a Lumière hallmark) rather than a curved one. A mustached man passes in front of the camera as he walks down the sidewalk. Another man stands on the edge of the street, his back to the camera, before eventually wandering off. A man leads a pair of horses out into the street and attaches them to the front of a horse-drawn streetcar. As the streetcar prepares to head out, two men come running to get on. Several buildings line the street in the background, and in the deep background, a much taller building (perhaps an early skyscraper) is faintly visible.

While this film ultimately isn&apos;t as good as Brooklyn: Fulton Street or New York: Broadway at Union Square, it remains one of the better street scenes. It has a remarkable clarity and depth of focus. It could almost pass for a brief establishing shot from a feature length film made later in the silent era. Like Promio&apos;s other NYC street scenes, it is an important historical document of the era. While hardly an essential, Whitehall Street is worth a look.

Alexandre Promio is arguably the best filmmaker the Lumières had in their stable of representatives that went abroad to shoot travelogue films. His films show a true eye for detail and composition. To verify this, one only needs to look at his street scenes, the finest of a genre that is rarely interesting to modern viewers beyond academic or historical value.

Whitehall Street is one of several films Promio made in New York City in 1896. This one, shot near Broadway in Manhattan, differs from his other NYC films in that it follows a diagonal composition (a Lumière hallmark) rather than a curved one. A mustached man passes in front of the camera as he walks down the sidewalk. Another man stands on the edge of the street, his back to the camera, before eventually wandering off. A man leads a pair of horses out into the street and attaches them to the front of a horse-drawn streetcar. As the streetcar prepares to head out, two men come running to get on. Several buildings line the street in the background, and in the deep background, a much taller building (perhaps an early skyscraper) is faintly visible.

While this film ultimately isn't as good as Brooklyn: Fulton Street or New York: Broadway at Union Square, it remains one of the better street scenes. It has a remarkable clarity and depth of focus. It could almost pass for a brief establishing shot from a feature length film made later in the silent era. Like Promio's other NYC street scenes, it is an important historical document of the era. While hardly an essential, Whitehall Street is worth a look.

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New York, Whitehall Street

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