A satire on the way that audiences unaccustomed to the cinema didn't know how to react to the moving images on a screen - in this film, an unsophisticated (and stereotypical) country yokel is alternately baffled and terrified, in the latter case by the apparent approach of a steam train.
The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901) is currently not available on any services.
Robert W. Paul
Robert W. Paul