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The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies
Maybe someday
38
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
9/100Critics
67/100Scholars
Author:
Paul Fischer
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Date:
April 19, 2022
In 1890, Le Prince was granted patents in four countries ahead of other inventors who were rushing to accomplish the same task. But just weeks before unveiling his invention to the world, he mysteriously disappeared and was never seen or heard from again. Three and a half years later, Thomas Edison, Le Princeâs rival, made the device public, claiming to have invented it himself. And the man who had dedicated his life to preserving memories was himself lost to historyâuntil now.
What The Reviewers Say
Fischer adds vivid colour as he chronicles his subject’s obsession with bringing the world’s first motion picture camera to market, and sketches the revolutionary backdrop to this story of transatlantic treachery.
Fischer lays out his case meticulously and with many footnotes, though he takes pains to entertain. Those two aims don’t always jibe, particularly when his more poetic flights of prose come up against the granular realities of R&D.
... lively.
... absorbing.
