L’Arroseur Arrosé (1895) Director: Louis Lumière

Also called the “The Sprinkler Sprinkled” in English, L’Arroseur Arrosé is a short (45 second) silent film by Louis Lumière. As with many early silent films it has born many different names over the years. It was initially screened in 1895. The film features a quick gag in which a young boy plays a prank on an older man who is watering his garden by stepping on the hose, only to release it moments later covering the man’s face in water. This film is one of the earliest examples of narrative film-making and it was shot using Lumière’s Cinematographe. It inspired numerous knock-off films as early copyright laws were not yet established with regard to films. Georges Méliès, the great magician of early film-making, later remade this movie and many years later François Truffaut paid homage to the gag in Les Mistons in 1958.

Since the film is less than one minute in length (and is important merely for its place in the history of early cinema) I decided not to properly evaluate it. L’Arroseur Arrosé stands in a category all its own.