Course en sacs (1896) User Reviews

The rich swim

[catpantry · 7/10 · 13 February 2020]

I can only imagine what the man was thinking who was watching this potato sack race. Seated on the hood of his ford, staring at this event, maybe he thought: 'If behaved real in life, I'd be right there with them. It would matter if I was in last place.'

An Endearing Little Feature

[Snow Leopard · 21 March 2006]

This very endearing Lumière feature shows a group of persons competing in a friendly, old-fashioned "Sack Race", and it is quite enjoyable to watch. It is lively, good-natured, and often funny. Whether it was spontaneous or whether it was staged in part for the camera, it works quite well in preserving the fun time had by a group of people from long ago.

The nature of the subject leads you to expect some humorous moments, and it will probably remind many viewers of similar experiences that they have had themselves. What makes the footage work particularly well is not the successful competitors who know what they are doing, but rather those who have to struggle along at the risk of embarrassment. After a short time, the scene becomes rather disorderly, in a humorous way, as the crowd of humans and dogs gets tangled up with the racers.

The best part of the movie is one man who is having a terrible time figuring out how to hop in his sack. As embarrassed as he must have felt, he takes it in stride, and he even seems to be enjoying himself. His facial expressions make it impossible not to like him and root for him. The rest of this short movie likewise is hard not to enjoy.

The usual good quality of Lumière's films is present here, with the composition and other technical aspects being done well. But this is one case in which the technical side is completely upstaged by the enjoyable material.

Lots of fun in here

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 July 2015]

Apparently everybody was simply having a great time in this Lumière short film from almost 120 years ago. The men were sack racing, the women were applauding and laughing and sometimes somebody fell down too the ground, but stood up with a smile on his lips. What i found most interesting about this short film of 35 seconds was that we see the director's hand near the end where he was gesturing towards the people where to walk. Film was at a very early stage at this point and this is of course a silent black-and-white movie. The director is Louis Lumière, a French film pioneer and he made so many movies that it's almost impossible to watch them all, maybe some are lost as well. Okay effort by him here. Not outstanding, but not bad either and the joy in the people's eyes is a nice reason to watch this one.

A Fun Glimpse of the Past

[Tornado_Sam · 11 January 2018]

Judging from the crowds watching the action and they way they block the view towards the end, "Course en Sacs" is undoubtedly a film depicting an actual event that took place possibly as part of some celebration or annual tradition. (This is also evidenced by the fact that the race takes place in the middle of a street). The entire thing, like all the Lumière features, is only roughly 40 seconds and consists of a single, well-composed view that tries as best it can to keep the subject of the picture in frame. In this case, it was obvious the Lumières had no intention of doing so and thought only to capture part of the race, which no doubt progressed further down the street. This would explain why the crowd breaks onto the track, in order to glimpse further action.

The short film is a very brief documentation of at least a dozen people participating in a sack race. Many of them are good, and all make it past the camera by the time the short comes to an end. The funniest and clearly the most interesting part is the one guy who doesn't get how to hop in his sack and falls far behind. He tumbles over once, and then some jerk from the sidelines thinks it would be fun to knock him over again to embarrass him even more. I pity that guy. It must have been embarrassing for him to have his only appearance in film be of him jumping around in a sack and falling over like an idiot.

And, as usual, these brief actualities always provide good records of forgotten customs and lifestyles that we would normally not be able to see today. In this case, we get to see what people did for fun instead of sitting around on smart phones and computers like now.