To give creativity free reign, in the space of fifty minutes: this is the strength of the documentary series Cinémas mythiques. This episode gives the critic Alain Bergala complete freedom to commemorate the original Éden de La Ciotat cinema. The oldest continuously operating cinema in the world first opened as a theatre in 1889, but the very same year it also hosted its first commercial film screening, comprised of nineteen Lumière “views”. Threatened with closure in the 1980s, the cinema was reopened in 2013 after a restoration project. This luminous documentary accompanies Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne over the course of a few days in October 2021 as they walk through the Teatro Éden, the shipyard and the Palais Lumière built by Antoine Lumière, the father of Auguste and Louis. And it does not forget the legendary station from L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat.
The culmination of the film features the Dardenne brothers, their eyes full of wonder, as they comment on extracts from Baignade en mer (1895) and Ateliers de La Ciotat (1896). Then several pertinent comparisons are drawn with their filmography: the art of movement (the uninterrupted traffic flow in The Kid with a Bike, 2011) and work (the stable in Young Ahmed, 2019). Bergala also cheekily adds a self-reflexive touch: a long shot of the room, surrounded by a gallery, in which we can see the interview taking place, including the filmmaking equipment. Such meticulous observation, which is typical of the cinema pioneers, can be seen throughout the documentary – so much so that any insert shots immediately look like a Lumière “view”.

 Nicolas Didier, “Telerama”, n. 3769, aprile 2022