Marey memorialised

John Wyver writes: We are en vacances, having driven during three days from London to the small town of Simiane-la-Rotonde in the middle of the beautiful but rather remote landscapes of the Luberon. (Before the envy kicks in too hard, this morning it’s raining. Hard.) On the way here we stopped off for a day in Beaune. Wandering through the backstreets we came across this delightful memorial to Étienne-Jules Marey, who we learn was born in the town in 1830. As Wikipedia says, he was ‘a French scientist, physician, physiologist, chronophotographer and inventor.’ And for anyone engaged by the pre-history of the cinema, the most interesting of these roles is ‘chronophotographer‘. Wikipedia can explain further: In 1889, Étienne-Jules Marey coined the term “chronophotography” to describe a technique for capturing instantaneous images. Inspired by Jules Janssen ‘s astronomical revolver (1874), this technique employed a new film camera he developed in collaboration with his assistant Georges…