It turns out the sun is low in the sky behind a horse in the courtyard and the shadows cast are being focussed through the keyhole.

Beyond being a lovely little scene it raises an interesting question. Is this techincally a camera obscura or is it a magic lantern effect? We’re of the opinion that the image in a camera obscura is made up of reflected light while the image in this scene is formed by blocking the light and casting a shadow. Are we wrong?

It doesn’t really matter though. The film is a criminally underlooked gem (comparisons might be The Princess Bride and Life of Pi) that you should definitely seek out. Here’s the 20 second scene in full.

Thanks to Chris Plant for the tip

First in a series of Camera Obscurae appearing in the movies.

Whenever we take the camera out in public there's always someone who mentions a film that features an Obscura. So we're going to start cataloging them.

The first in this list comes from Pete's favourite film of all time, A Matter Of Life And Death from 1946. Here's the scene on YouTube (don't worry, there aren't any spoilers for the film)

It's a lovely scene that introduces Roger Livesey's supporting character Dr Reeves, an English eccentric who uses the camera to diagnose the village from above, foreshadowing a surprising amount of the film.

It also features dogs looking at the projection, which is awesome.

The camera is the classic tower design with the mirror rotated by a lever and projected onto a round table. There's also a lovely shot up to the mirror so you can see the workings.

The camera obscura appears in a surprising number of films – here's one list on IMBD. If you have a favourite do let us know!