Watching Un voyage au Caire is like looking through a dusty window

If you have about two minutes and want to feel like a ghost watching people from 1900, you should probly watch this. It is definitely worth seeing if you like that weird, shaky feeling of really old film. 🎥

History nerds and people who like old postcards will love it. If you need a plot or characters who talk, you are gonna hate it because it's just people on camels.

I found myself staring at the background more than the family. There is this one guy in a hat who looks like he is deeply regretting his choice of clothing for the desert.

The movie is called Un voyage au Caire and it is exactly what it says on the tin. A family goes to Cairo. They get on some camels. They look at the Sphinx.

The camels look so incredibly bored. One of them has this expression like it has seen a thousand tourists and none of them have ever had a single original thought. 🐪

It is kind of funny how little the Sphinx has changed while everything else around it looks so different now. In the film, it looks a bit more buried in the sand, or maybe that is just the camera angle.

The film grain is so heavy it almost looks like it is raining indoors. It adds a layer of mystery to the whole thing that probably wasn't there when they filmed it.

There is no acting, obviously. It is just people existing in front of a lens that they aren't quite sure how to behave around yet. Some of them look stiff, like they are worried the camera might explode if they move too fast.

I kept thinking about how long it must have taken them to get there. No planes, just big slow boats and dusty trains. And then they finally get there and someone pulls out this hand-cranked box to record them.

It reminds me a bit of the energy in Did You Ever Take a Ride Over Kansas City Street 'in a Fliver'. Both are just about the feeling of being somewhere else.

One kid in the family keeps looking back at the camera. He looks confused but also like he wants to be famous. I wonder what happened to him.

The way the light hits the sand is actually pretty beautiful even without color. You can almost feel the heat coming off the screen, or maybe that is just my laptop fan working too hard. ☀️

There is a moment where a camel sits down and the person on top looks genuinely terrified. It is the most human moment in the whole thing.

It is way different from something like Beauty and the Beast which tries to tell a big story. This is just a slice of a Tuesday in 1900.

I noticed the clothes are all wrong for the weather. Everyone is in suits or long dresses. How did they not just pass out immediately? The sheer willpower of Victorian-era fashion is terrifying.

If you compare this to Up in the Air, you can see how much more "staged" things became later on. This Cairo trip feels accidental.

There is a flicker in the top left corner for about ten seconds that looks like a thumb or a piece of hair. It makes the whole thing feel more real. Like someone actually held this piece of history in their messy hands.

I wish there was more footage of the actual city, but I guess the Sphinx was the only thing the tourists cared about back then too. Some things never change.

The film ends very abruptly. Like the cameraman just ran out of film or got tired of cranking the handle. It just stops.

It lacks the drama of something like The Midnight Wedding. It doesn't have the grit of Double Danger either. It's just a family on vacation.

I wonder if they knew people would be watching this over a hundred years later on glowing rectangles. Probly not.

It makes me think of Physical Beauty in a weird way. Just the idea of capturing a moment because you think it looks nice and wanting to keep it forever.

The desert looks so empty. There are no gift shops or guys trying to sell you plastic pyramids in the background. Just sand and stone.

Watching this feels a bit like finding a lost wallet. You see the pictures inside and you feel like you know the people, but you really don't know anything about them at all.

It is much more relaxing than watching Hot Water. There is no stress here. Just the slow, rhythmic walking of camels.

I think the best way to watch this is to turn off the lights and just let the flickering take over your brain for a minute. It is like a meditation but with more dust.

I noticed a small dog running near the Sphinx's paw for a split second. It’s the little things that make these old reels worth it. 🐕

Anyway, it’s a short trip. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It just shows you the past and then leaves you alone.

It's better than a lot of the stuff that tries too hard like The Penalty of Fame. It doesn't have anything to prove.

Just a family. Just a desert. Just a camel that looks like it’s done with everyone’s crap.