Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat in 4K

Originally filmed by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1896, the 50-second Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat is one of the most famous of the early films. It’s considered the earliest film to use what are now standard cinematic techniques, including camera angle, long shots, and forced perspective. It’s also the subject of a famous urban legend: when the film was first shown in theaters, the audience thought the train was really coming at them and ran to escape it.

Earlier this month, a YouTube filmmaker named Denis Shiryaev converted Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat to 4K and 60 fps using several neural networks — and the results are quite stunning. You can occasionally see some of the neural networks’ processing in action (e.g., the mirage-like shimmering in the opening seconds) but overall, the footage is so crisp and smooth, you’d never think you were watching something originally shot in the 19th century.

You can watch the original below to get a better sense of the contrast.

Via Screen Crush.