I had read descriptions of this movie at least 20 years before I first saw it; inevitably, the movie is a disappointment. Actually, the Lumiere Brothers made at least two different versions of this movie, in different locations with different casts. Its title is usually given in English as 'Watering the Gardener'. This 1895 effort is the earlier version.
SPOILERS COMING. A gardener is using a hosepipe to water the garden. A boy sneaks up behind him and treads on the hose, shutting off the flow. The gardener, of course, peers directly into the empty nozzle to see what's wrong. Cue the boy to lift his foot, restoring the flow and soaking the gardener. Spotting the fleeing boy, the gardener catches him and spanks him.
This movie is often cited as the very first film comedy, and it surely qualifies as one of the very earliest. When I'd first read about it, I visualised the boy as being about seven or eight years old at most. In this film (both versions I've seen), he's clearly at least twelve: really too old to be engaged in this sort of mischief ... and spanking a boy of that age is not so much punitive as something else altogether.
I was vaguely intrigued that the hosepipe in this movie is made of some material which causes it to kink into sections rather than flex uniformly. Gutta-percha, perhaps?
The Lumiere brothers' very earliest movies were simply filmed events: documentary footage. Although this movie's action has clearly been staged for the camera, it's still historically significant as an early attempt to tell a story in the cinema medium rather than merely record events. For that reason, I'll rate this crude soaker 10 out of 10.
SPOILERS COMING. A gardener is using a hosepipe to water the garden. A boy sneaks up behind him and treads on the hose, shutting off the flow. The gardener, of course, peers directly into the empty nozzle to see what's wrong. Cue the boy to lift his foot, restoring the flow and soaking the gardener. Spotting the fleeing boy, the gardener catches him and spanks him.
This movie is often cited as the very first film comedy, and it surely qualifies as one of the very earliest. When I'd first read about it, I visualised the boy as being about seven or eight years old at most. In this film (both versions I've seen), he's clearly at least twelve: really too old to be engaged in this sort of mischief ... and spanking a boy of that age is not so much punitive as something else altogether.
I was vaguely intrigued that the hosepipe in this movie is made of some material which causes it to kink into sections rather than flex uniformly. Gutta-percha, perhaps?
The Lumiere brothers' very earliest movies were simply filmed events: documentary footage. Although this movie's action has clearly been staged for the camera, it's still historically significant as an early attempt to tell a story in the cinema medium rather than merely record events. For that reason, I'll rate this crude soaker 10 out of 10.