With animations by the Lumière brothers and films by the likes of Charles Pathé displayed alongside Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte and others, this exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (28 September–16 January 2022) looks at how from its earliest years cinema engaged with other art forms. Above all it explores, through some 300 exhibits, the growing fascination with spectacle during the era – whether in the form of panoramas, wax museums, or the newly spectacular incarnation of the modern city itself – to remind us that cinema was, as Jean-Luc Godard said, a creature of the 19th century. Find out more from the Musée d’Orsay’s website.

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On the Pont de l’Europe (1876–77), Gustave Caillebotte. Photo: © Kimbell Art Museum

Théatre des Menus-Plaisirs … tous les soirs à 8h 1⁄2 Les Invisibles (1883), Emile Levy. Photo: © Photo BnF

Le cinéma Gaumont-Palace, place de Clichy (c. 1913), Louis Abel-Truchet. CCØ Paris Musées/Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris

Personnages, deux chiens et voiture à impériale sur le pont du Louvre (1885–95), Henri Rivière. Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée d’Orsay)/Hervé Lewandowski/ADAGP, Paris, 2021