This is a familiar scene of a metropolitan childhood. At a local pond or fountain, youngsters are playing with toy boats in the water while people walk back and forth. There are contemporary movies of boys in Central Park and almost certainly elsewhere and it's certainly a familiar image in Hollywood movies through the 1930s.
It's a standard composition, well chosen, and with little interesting beyond the obvious in this Lumiere picture. It's an image of everyday life. Of course, a good deal of thought went into this little picture: where to put the camera, which subjects to focus on, time of day for lighting and for foot traffic. However, given some of the obvious and important advances offered by the Lumieres in their movies, this is just standard.
