5/6. Directed by Louis Lumière and starring François Clerc a (Clerc who played the Gardener who got sprayed in the face was actually Lumière’s gardener) and Benoît Duval. For those of you who don’t know Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers. It is the earliest known instance of film comedy, the first use of film to portray a fictional story, and the first use of a promotional film poster. The film was originally known as Le Jardinier (“The Gardener”) or Le Jardinier et le petit espiègle, and is sometimes referred to in English as Tables Turned on the Gardener, The Sprinkler Sprinkled, and The Waterer Watered. It was first screened on June 10, 1895.
This is possibly one of the shortest movies that I have reviewed for The Movie Boards. Curiosity is the reason that I searched for the movie, and I just will look at more ‘oldest genre movies’ in the future. Now before watching this part of me wondered considering that this such an old movie, at 127 years old. Would it be a funny movie? It is, kind of. Spraying somebody with a kink in a hose has been done before in live-action and animation and it was nice to see one of the first instances of this being done on film. This is not the type of movie that is going to have you rolling on the floor with laughter. It’s the type of movie you would want to watch to be able to say that you have watched the oldest comedy and considering how old The Waterer Watered is, its easy to find on websites like YouTube.