Probably the first fictional film ever made was the
Lumières'
The Waterer Watered (''L'Arroseur Arrosé
), which was first screened at the Grand Café Capucines on December 28, 1895. A year later in 1896, Alice Guy-Blaché directed the fictional film The Fairy of the Cabbages (La Fée aux Choux
). Perhaps the best known of early fictional films is Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon from 1902. Most films previous to this had been merely moving images of everyday occurrences, such as The Arrival of a Train at The City Station (L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat'') by
Auguste and Louis Lumière. Méliès was one of the first directors to progress cinematic technology, which paved the way for narratives as style of film. Narrative films have come so far since their introduction that
film genres such as
comedy or
Western films, were, and continue to be introduced as a way to further categorize these films. Narrative cinema is usually contrasted to films that present information, such as a nature
documentary, as well as to some
experimental films (works such as
Wavelength by
Michael Snow,
Man with a Movie Camera by
Dziga Vertov, or films by
Chantal Akerman). In some instances pure documentary films, while
nonfiction, may nonetheless recount a story. As genres evolve, from fiction film and
documentary a
hybrid one emerged,
docufiction. Many films are based on real occurrences, however these too fall under the category of a "narrative film" rather than a
documentary. This is because films based on real occurrences are not simply footage of the occurrence, but rather hired actors portraying an adjusted, often more dramatic, retelling of the occurrence (such as
21 by
Robert Luketic). Classical, invisible film making (what is often called
realist fiction) is central to this popular definition. This key element of this invisible film making lies in
continuity editing. == See also ==