Tables Turned on the Gardener (1895)
"L'arroseur arrosé" (original title)

This may well be the first sight gag in cinema history, and it's certainly one of the most famous - a gardener is watering the flowers; a young boy steps on the hose, thus blocking the flow... See full summary »

Director:

Louis Lumière

Stars:

François Clerc, Benoît Duval

Cast

Credited cast:
François Clerc	...	The Gardener
Benoît Duval	...	The Boy

Storyline

This may well be the first sight gag in cinema history, and it's certainly one of the most famous - a gardener is watering the flowers; a young boy steps on the hose, thus blocking the flow of water; the gardener looks down the hose to see what's happening; the boy lifts his foot off

---

Plot Keywords:

hose | boy | gardener | water | spanking | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Short

---

Details

Country:

France

Release Date:

1896 (Finland)

Also Known As:

The Sprinkler Sprinkled

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lumière

Technical Specs

Runtime:

1 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First fully staged fictional film projected in public.

---

Connections

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997)

User Reviews

A Pioneering Work That's Still Quite Interesting

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.