L'arroseur arrosé

The Lumiere Brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, reportedly made the first projected films ever. By today's standards, these films look rather crude because they mostly didn't feature any sort of plot but were mostly scenes of everyday life. Believe it or not, at this time ANYTHING would pass for entertainment--so long as it moved. "L'Arroseur Arrose" (aka "The Tables Turned on the Gardener" or "The Watered Watered" and known in some circles as "The Sprinkler Sprinkled" or "The Sprayer Sprayed") not only is a moving picture (wow, how cool, right?) but it TELLS A STORY! AND IT'S A FUNNY ONE! AND IT'S A LAUGH RIOT!! Okay, so it's not. But it was for the time. Today the gag is so old it doesn't work at all and thus the main reason to watch this short is because of the historical significance. However, I have something to say about this significance. Yes, this is considered the first comedy by many. And I'm not denying how important it is in cinematic history. But the truth is, this is not the first filmed comedy ever made. One year before, the Edison Manufacturing Company had performers Phil Doretto and Robetta star in several kinetoscope films of their comedy routine. The one surviving film of these three shorts is "Chinese Laundry Scene" which was filmed in Edison's "Black Maria" studio and while simply a filming of this routine, THAT short can be considered the first comedy. This one remains important as ONE of the first comedies, but not as THE first comedies.

On a side note, this gag was copied a lot by other filmmakers. One of French Cinemagician Georges Melies's first films, called "Watering the Flowers" is believed to have been a remake (though it is now lost). There is also a Bamforth version of the film available from 1899 called "The Biter Bit" which is an elaboration on the original skit.

This Lumière classic would always be worth seeing simply for its significance as a pioneering effort in using motion pictures to tell a fictional story. It also retains its interest as a brief but amusing story in itself, which sticks in your mind despite its simplicity.

The old practical joke with the hose, which forms the premise of "L'arroseur arrosé", is one familiar to almost everyone, since we've all either played it on someone or had it played on us. Maybe that's one reason why, as light as it is, this works pretty well despite the relatively simple technique. Another reason is that the opening situation is set up well, establishing a peaceful scene of a man watering his garden, before the main action begins.

For such an early effort, it's carried off quite well. Once the action gets going, you can see that the actors are a bit self-conscious of the camera's location, and there are a couple of brief awkward moments as a result. The man playing the gardener, though, is very believable in his responses to the situation. And anyway, this little movie is almost beyond a critique, in view of its good-natured energy, not to mention all of the later ideas that grew out of this simple footage.

The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895)

*** (out of 4)

This early film from Louis Lumiere is considered by many to be the first actual comedy ever made. At just 40 seconds we see a gardner watering some plants when another man steps on the hose. For the laugh, the gardner looks straight into the hose to see what's wrong and..... Well, you know what happens. I must admit that this "comedy" actually does work and I'm going to guess it happened by accident by the timing of the two men is actually quite good and especially the gardner. His reaction to being sprayed with water was extremely funny and his chace is also quite funny. Again, there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here other than the fact that it was the first comedy and that it actually works.

L'arroseur arrosé (1897)

If you go through the films that were made during the 1890s you'll notice that there was a style of comedy that several American comedies did as well as this one from France. Basically the joke is that someone will have a water hose and will be watering something. Someone else will step on the line causing the man to wonder what's going on. He then places the hose to his face, the other man releases his foot and bam. Someone is wet. This here has to be the fourth and fifth film that I've seen the same gag play out. Is it funny? Not really but at the same time it is interesting seeing so many different companies trying to the joke.

L'Arroseur Arrosé is a cry from the depths of the proletariat for social emancipation, whereby the disenfranchised masses represented in a life-justifying performance as the Boy can only find justice through subversion and revolution. Indeed, the conclusion of this epic drama can been seen as a confirmation of the inherent violence in a Hegelian dialectic of class conflict; the chilling figure of the Gardener (a possible reference to ecclesiastical authority?) viciously suppresses the rights of the Boy to self-expression. The perennial nature of this conflict is undermined when both parties rush out of the "garden"; no resolution is possible except mutual annihilation.

Or, it could be a piece of light-hearted fun, as Lumiere recognised that the novelty of seeing pictures of factory workers and trains moving was wearing thin, and needed to be backed up with plot. It'll raise a smile for a few seconds, as a memento of an age with less demanding audiences.