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46 reviews for:
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies
Paul Fischer
3.55 AVERAGE
46 reviews for:
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies
Paul Fischer
3.55 AVERAGE
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Most people don't really know who Louis Le Prince is or how he was the inventor of the motion picture camera. This book looks through Le Prince's life, his marriage, and his obsession with inventing.
I read a lot of the other reviews and I think people are not really understanding. This mystery is over 100 years old, and to truly dig down into the details of what a camera first was, of course it is going to be a confusing chem class in a sentence. But I believe that this is also how a story written at that time in the 1800s would have been like. There is a lot of information and the author did a good job of tying it all together in a way that makes you want to learn more about the early inventors of the camera and the man who disappeared.
Yes, there is a lot of camera talk that may seem pointless but when you think about it learning how far the camera and motion pictures have come, the men who fought daily for the creative right, and the fraud committed by Edison (I've already held disdain for Edison) all wrapped up in a murder-mystery. It is a good read, an important lesson even.
I read a lot of the other reviews and I think people are not really understanding. This mystery is over 100 years old, and to truly dig down into the details of what a camera first was, of course it is going to be a confusing chem class in a sentence. But I believe that this is also how a story written at that time in the 1800s would have been like. There is a lot of information and the author did a good job of tying it all together in a way that makes you want to learn more about the early inventors of the camera and the man who disappeared.
Yes, there is a lot of camera talk that may seem pointless but when you think about it learning how far the camera and motion pictures have come, the men who fought daily for the creative right, and the fraud committed by Edison (I've already held disdain for Edison) all wrapped up in a murder-mystery. It is a good read, an important lesson even.
The story of the many people inventing moving pictures is a good one, if a little frustrating at times with how much has to be left as conjecture. The mystery at the centre of it is a good hook, but so too is the technological innovation, corporate warfare and family drama aspects. So while the fundamentals are riveting, I found the writing a little bland. The competing narratives of what the facts tell and what is left unexplained are hard to marry up, so the story felt a bit disjointed overall.
slow-paced
informative
mysterious
This book was pretty dry and you'd better have an equal interest in the true crime stuff as with early video camera technology—I do, so it worked out, but it's not what I expected going in! Fuck Edison for real.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
While I learned a lot about the history of motion picture, I was disappointed that more was not talked about in terms of Edison’s potential involvement in Le Prince’s disappearance. Additionally, only the first chapter and the last two or three chapters even suggest it at all, and it’s just suggestions. Also, to insinuate that it was his brother that killed him in the last few pages seems to be a reach. If this was truly a theory, actually write a book about it instead of implying that the book will be about Le Prince’s disappearance rather than a history lesson.