Movies 1895

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L'Arroseur arrosé (also known as The Waterer Watered and The Sprinkler Sprinkled) is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent comedy film directed and produced by Louis Lumière and starring François Clerc and Benoît Duval. It was first screened on June 10, 1895.
It has the distinction of being the earliest known instance of film comedy, as well as the first use of film to portray a fictional story. The film was originally known as "Le Jardinier" (The Gardener) or "Le Jardinier et le petit espiègle", and is sometimes referred to in English as "The Tables Turned on the Gardener", and "The Sprinkler Sprinkled".




Plot

Shot in Lyon in the spring of 1895, the film portrays a simple practical joke in which a gardener is tormented by a boy who steps on the hose that the gardener is using to water his plants, cutting off the water flow. When the gardener tilts the nozzle up to inspect it, the boy releases the hose, causing the water to spray him. The gardener is stunned and his hat is knocked off, but he soon catches on. A chase ensues, both on and off-screen (the camera never moves from its original position) until the gardener catches the boy and administers a spanking. The entire film lasts only 49 seconds, but this simple bit of slapstick may be the forerunner of all subsequent film comedy.[1]


Production

In the earliest years of the history of film, the cinema was used by pioneers such as Thomas Edison and the Lumières to entertain by the sheer novelty of the invention, and most films were short recordings of mundane events, such as a sneeze, or the arrival of a train. Ever seeking to innovate, the Lumières took some of the first steps toward narrative film with L'Arroseur arrosé. Given the documentary nature of existing films up until this point, a scripted, comedic film shown among these was unexpected by an audience, enhancing its comedic surprise value.
It was filmed by means of the Cinématographe, an all-in-one camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. As with all early Lumière movies, this film was made in a 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.


Cast

Louis Lumière used his own gardener, François Clerc, to portray the gardener. For the mischievous boy, Lumière used a young apprentice carpenter from the Lumière factory who is variously credited as Daniel Duval and Benoît Duval. But Léon Trotobas seems to have been the first boy to play the role in La Ciotat.
François Clerc as Gardener
Léon Trotobas, then Benoît Duval as Boy (sometimes credited as Daniel Duval)


The poster


The poster for L'Arroseur arrosé has the distinction of being the first poster ever designed to promote an individual film. Although posters had been used to advertise cinematic projection shows since 1890, these early posters were typically devoted to describing the quality of the recordings and touting the technological novelty of these shows.[5] The poster for L'Arroseur, illustrated by Marcellin Auzolle, depicts an audience (in the foreground) laughing as the film (in the background) is projected against a screen. It depicts the moment the gardener is splashed in the face, and is thus also the first film poster to depict an actual scene from a film.

Copies and Imitations

As copyright law was neither enforced nor yet well-defined for the emerging art of cinema, it was common both for competing filmmakers to reshoot a popular film short and for distributors to duplicate a film print to show as their own. Through these practices, L'Arroseur arrosé was copied several times and released under a number of different titles in both France and the US, including at least one remake by the Lumières, themselves. Little is known about most of these copies, although one known remake was filmed by Georges Méliès, titled L'Arroseur, in 1896. French New Wave director François Truffaut later included an homage to the gag in his 1958 film, Les Mistons.
Current status

Given its age, this short film is available to freely download from the Internet. It has also featured in a number of film collections including Landmarks of Early Film volume 1.

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A policeman catches a pickpocket, who slips from his jacket but is caught by a sailor.

Director: Birt Acres

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The Execution of Mary Stuart is a short film produced in 1895. The film depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The 18-second-long film was produced by Thomas Edison and directed by Alfred Clark and may have been the first film in history to use trained actors, as well as one of the first to use editing for the purposes of special effects. The film shows an uncredited, blindfolded actress (playing Mary) being led to the execution block. The executioner raises his axe and an edit occurs during which the actress is replaced by a mannequin. The mannequin's head is chopped off and the executioner holds it in the air as the film ends.


Directed by Alfred Clark
Produced by Thomas Edison
Starring Robert Thomae
Cinematography William Heise
Distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company
Release date(s) August 28, 1895
Running time 18 seconds
Country United States
Language Silent film

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Directed by Louis Lumière
Produced by Louis Lumière
Cinematography Louis Lumière
Distributed by Lumière
Release date(s) March 22, 1895 (France)
February 20, 1896 (UK)
March 22, 1970 (Denmark TV premiere)
Running time 46 seconds
Country France
Language Silent

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Director: Birt Acres
Stars: Kaiser Wilhelm II

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Director: Louis Lumière

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Background

The Serpentine is an evolution of the skirt dance, a form of burlesque dance that had recently arrived in the United States from England. Skirt dancing was itself a reaction against "academic" forms of ballet, incorporating tamed-down versions of folk and popular dances like the can-can.
The new dance was originated by Loïe Fuller, who gave varying accounts of how she developed it.[1] By her own account, which is widely reported, having never danced professionally before, she accidentally discovered the effects of stage light cast from different angles on the gauze fabric of a costume she had hastily assembled for her performance in the play Quack M.D., and spontaneously developed the new form in response to the audience's enthusiastic reaction upon seeing the way her skirt appeared in the lights. During the dance she held her long skirt in her hands, and waved it around, revealing her form inside.


Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dance routines. She uses her dance steps and her long, flowing skirts to create a variety of visual patterns.

Directors: William K.L. Dickson, William Heise
Stars: Annabelle Moore

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Director: Max Skladanowsky
Writer: Max Skladanowsky (screenplay)
Stars: Emil Skladanowsky and Max Skladanowsky

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In commedia dell'arte style, an actor on a stool presents six distinct characters through speedy application of whiskers and a hat or...

Director: Louis Lumière

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Director: Alfred Clark

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Autour d'une cabine, original full title Autour d'une cabine ou Mésaventures d'un copurchic aux bains de mer, is an 1894 French short animated film directed by Émile Reynaud. It is an animated film made of 636 individually images hand painted in 1893. The film showed off Emile's invention, the Théâtre Optique. It was shown at the Musée Grévin from December 1894 until March 1900.

Plot

The film consists of a series of animations on a beach containing two beach huts and a diving board. Two characters play at diving into the water from the diving board and then appear on the beach. The woman begins to play with a small dog and is then joined by a gentleman. The two play around on the beach before getting changed into bathing costumes and going into the water. They bob up and down in the water before swimming out of the scene. Once the couple have gone a man sails out in a boat.


Directed by Émile Reynaud
Music by by Gaston Paulin
Release date(s) 1894
Running time 15 minutes
Country France
Language Silent

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A machine turns live pigs into sausages.

Director: Louis Lumière

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Production

This short documentary was filmed in Place des Cordeliers, Lyon, Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France. It was filmed by means of the Cinématographe, an all-in-one camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. As with all early Lumière movies, this film was made in a 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.


Plot

The film has no plot as such but is instead a stationary camera positioned on the Place des Cordeliers in Lyon. The camera observes the traffic passing along the street, including people walking and a number of horses pulling carriages.

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In the background is a house. In the foreground, a groom holds the reins of a sleek black horse that stands in profile. A tall man, dressed in a black uniform, demonstrates how to mount the horse then encourages and tries to assist a man in white. The man in white keeps falling, and soon it's apparent that he's an putting on a show. His pratfalls become more elaborate and stylish. The horse stands patient. The little groom laughs to see such sport. And finally, the man in white finds a comic accommodation. The story, though brief, has a beginning, middle, and end.


Director: Louis Lumière

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Barque sortant du port (also known as Boat Leaving the Port) is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent film directed and produced by Louis Lumière.
The film consists of a single shot of a boat leaving the port, being rowed into rough seas by three men. This scene is observed by two women and children who are standing on a nearby jetty.

Production

It was filmed by means of the Cinématographe, an all-in-one camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. As with all early Lumière movies, this film was made in a 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1

Directed by Louis Lumière
Produced by Louis Lumière
Cinematography Louis Lumière
Release date(s) 1895
Running time 46 seconds
Country France
Language Silent

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Director: Louis Lumière
Stars: P.J.C. Janssen

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Director: Louis Lumière

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Outdoors, with a nondescript building in the background, four men stand, each holding the corner of a blanket stretched parallel to the ground. They wear the clothes of laborers. By the back corner on our left stands a uniformed man who seems in charge. A sixth man stands back from the blanket about six paces; he runs forward and takes a leap but stops at the edge of the blanket and is upbraided by the uniformed gent. The same thing happens a second time, but the next three times, he completes a flip, landing on his back in the middle of the blanket, and the four then boost him out toward the camera. The final time seems like it will be his last for awhile.

Director: Louis Lumière

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Director: Max Skladanowsky

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A train arriving at a train station.

Director: Louis Lumière

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A stationary camera looks across the boulevard at a diagonal toward one corner of Lyon's Cordeliers' Square. It's a long shot, with a great deal of depth of focus. We can see the sky and fronts of four buildings, each four or five stories tall. It's a busy thoroughfare, with pedestrians walking in front of the buildings and crossing the boulevard between horse-drawn vehicles. A double-decker bus passes in front of us, pulled by two horses. Various tradesmen pass on wagons. One van passes.

Director: Louis Lumière

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Like all the early Lumiere Brothers shorts, this consists of just one shot, of Auguste Lumiere, his wife and baby daughter having breakfast...

Director: Louis Lumière
Stars: Auguste Lumière, Mrs. Auguste Lumiere and Andrée Lumière

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Director: Louis Lumière

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Director: Louis Lumière