The Miller and Chimney Sweep

This early slapstick comedy is entertaining to watch now, and for 1898 exceptional considering many films at the time had no story at all. So, for the time, this film is good for 1898 because not only does it have a story to tell, it's a contender for one of the earliest comedies. All that happens is that a miller bumps into a chimney sweep and then they fight. A crowd then enters the scene and chases after them for no real apparent reason. It's a pretty fun 30 seconds even if it's not all that funny today.

As far as ancient films are concerned, "The Miller and the Sweep" is noteworthy for being an early British comedy and particularly for being a forerunner of later chase films and slapstick comedies. The chase film was one of the more important early film genres because of its influence on the development of continuity editing. "The Miller and the Sweep" and another early chase comedy "Chinese Laundry Scene" (1894), which was made by the Edison Company and based on a vaudeville act, consist of only one shot and scene, though. The chase film's effect on multi-shot films seems to have began with "Stop Thief!" (1901), which was made by Smith's friend and neighbor in Brighton-Hove, James Williamson. The chase comedy, it seems, became popular after "Personal" (1904)--leading to the popular Pathé chase comedies, then the Keystone films and eventually the chases in Buster Keaton's movies.

In its brief minute-or-so running time, "The Miller and the Sweep" begins with some messy knockabout slapstick between a miller with his bag of flour and a chimneysweeper and his bag of soot. Their wrestling then turns into a very brief comedic chase. None of the direction is particularly exceptional, as the episode takes place entirely before a stationary camera and within a limited 52 feet of film. In the background, a flourmill serves as a landmark. According to John Barnes ("The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894-1901"), it was the Race Hill Mill, located in Brighton.

In a larger context, "The Miller and the Sweep" is not an especially important film, and it's rather awkwardly constructed even for 1897, but the filmmaker who made it, George Albert Smith, was one of the more important pioneers of early cinema. Many of his films after this one (which was very early in his career), in ways, surpass anything else made by others (including the more acclaimed Edwin Porter and Georges Méliès), as Smith experimented with editing, some of the earliest multi-shot films, trick effects, close-ups and scene dissection.

On a further historical note, thanks to the comparatively detailed records of Smith's film production, Barnes also mentions that Smith first failed to produce a version of "The Miller and the Sweep" on 24 June 1897. This film is his second and successful try at the subject, filmed on 24 September 1897. Additionally, the following year, Robert W. Paul remade this film with the same title, so it must have been rather popular. In the Movies Begin series, it's claimed that the subject had a tradition in comic strips and stage acts.

The answer.....No, sadly not. Though miller and the sweep has to be hailed as a most whimsical cinematic treat.The drama, suspense,romance and the unidentified crowd at the end all add to the films complex storyline which must have been too much for the audiences of 1898. A enlightening experience, one for all the family!

THis is a bewildering, Absurdist Short. A miller, dressed in white, makes his way towards us from a windmill in a desolate landscape. Although the image is pared down, there is an obvious logic here. However, he is stopped by the sweep, all in black because of his work. They start pummelling each other for no particular reason - did the snooty miller insult the sooty sweep? Is this class war?

Whatever, he pelts his adversary with bags of grain which fly all over the fight, making redundant everything he had done prior to the fight, making redundant the windmill, so that all becomes as pointless as the fight. The miller's grain whitens the sweep's blackness - later Westerns wouldn't be so subtle, heroes and villains being colour-coded. Is there a racial tint here?

If this wasn't marvellous enough, the fighters are chased off the screen by a crowd of people who came from nowhere, an appropriately Kafkaesque ending to an odd story (or are they just the social conscience rising up against a fight that negates order and purpose?), and very unusual in the days of early silent cinema. This mix of comedy, surrealism, and the Absurd is an obvious forerunner for BUster Keaton, while the windmill reminds us of one of the great thrillers, Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondant'.

Okay, if this film had been made much later in the history of cinema, it wouldn't be particularly worthwhile. However, in 1898, films were in their infancy and they were almost all rather dull and had no real story to tell--instead just showing normal everyday folks doing everyday activities. If seen today, almost all of them are hopelessly dull and very, very short--often less than one minute long! And so in light of this, this short clip of a movie is pretty swell stuff and might just make you laugh. Two guys, a miller and a chimney sweep bump into each other--falling and throwing flour and coal dust all over each other as they tussle. THAT'S ALL--the film is over before you know it.