I stumbled upon this magnificent short, vintage French film and just fell in love with it.
After much research I finally understood the origin. It is dated back to 1899 and it was shot by the Lumiere Brothers, the pioneers and creators of cinematography as we pretty much know it today. Back in the time there was no color yet available for film, and it is said that the colors were added by hand, frame by frame. It must have been an amazing experience to watch such visuals for the very first time, when it was first released.
The film was inspired by the work or Loie Fuller, an American dancer who made it big in France with her unusual artistry. Fuller became at the time the image of the Art Nouveau movement. The Lumiere Brothers heard about her art, and used it as a means to portray the wonders of cinematography. The dancer in the film is not Fuller, though.
You can read more about all of this in Wikipedia here.
