Overrated

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This Lumiere documentary is again nothing special or ground-breaking from anything else we've seen but it's entertaining because it shows a moment in time. There's a little girl (somebody named Madeleine Koehler, a friend of the Lumiere family, maybe?) who is in her highchair, with a cat perched on the tray, diving for the food she holds in her hand. The film ends just as the cat dives for the girl's hand. I have to say the composition is excellent and the well-placed camera captures the activity decently. There is plenty of action within the frame as well. For what it is it's nothing special, and I'm not sure if this was staged. Maybe so. While not something overly special or interesting, it's a Lumiere actuality just capturing what happened between 'the little girl and her cat' so you can't criticize it for what it was trying to do. Since I'm a big fan of these Lumiere actualities I of course liked it. Even today's audiences might find this to be a cute little film.

La petite fille et son chat (1899)Louis Lumiere directed this picture which shows a little girl sitting in her chair trying to feed a cat. At first the cat appears willing but he then jumps off only to be thrown back on the girl. These early films sometimes just had directors turning the camera on hoping to catch something special. This is a pretty fun film to watch because the cat eventually gets more interested in what's going on and at one point the girl takes the food away only to have the cat use its paws to try and get it back. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it's an entertaining film that even today's audiences would enjoy.

This is an 1899 French silent black-and-white movie by Louis Lumière, one of the most known filmmakers of the very early days. It only runs for 40 seconds and we basically see a little girl feeding her cat. The cat gets a bite, jumps away, but returns quickly for more food. What I found most memorable was the way the little girl was dressed here, very extravagantly and pretty much like a grown-up woman. I did not like it. But the cat was pretty cute and majestic at the same time. Looks like it became more popular to film animals. There are other movies out there with horses, bulls, cats, birds etc from that time. Unfortunately, apart from the cute cat there is no other reason for watching this. Decide for yourself if this is reason enough. I would recommend it to cat lovers only.

Beautifully framed, a little girl wearing a hat with a large brim and a wide sash around her waist feeds her kitty from a high chair out in the garden for 50 seconds. While it is a big kitty, it is very active; at one point jumps down from the high chair, then jumps back up for more, trying to pull the girl's hand back as she takes the treat out a bit too far. A totally innocent "everyday scene" from the Lumières, and an especially charming one; the spirit of Auguste Renoir is not far from its visual language and the kitty is a good actor. The full film runs 50 seconds, but there is a version circulating on the web that runs only 35 seconds as it is projected a little too quickly.