A dilapidated brick wall is being deconstructed in a yard. After a series of hammer-blows three workers carefully topple the wall, a cloud of dust erupting from the impact enveloping a nearby foreman, and the workers chip away at the rubble. Following a brief pause, the dust coalesces, sucked into the ground as the wall leaps balletically back into place, guided to rest by the waiting workmen.

 

By simply running the film in reverse, this extraordinary reversal of entropy in the Lumières Brothers’ 1895 picture La Démolition d’un mur stands as one of the earliest special effects in cinema. 

 

Steven Daverson, 2023