Bataille de boules de neige

Bataille de neige (1897)

This fifty second film from Louis Lumiere has a group of people throwing snowballs in the street. At first they're not aimed at anyone but soon a man comes along riding a bicycle. BATAILLE DE NEIGE is one of the best known films from Lumiere, which is easy to understand why since the image of people throwing snowballs is just downright fun. Even when viewing this film today you can't help but watch it with a smile as it's clear everyone is having a good time and we're given a twist with a minor subplot involving the bicycle rider. Yes, it's certainly nothing special by today's standards but for 1897 it offers something more than just one thing playing out.

I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place – but that's about it.

This film is essentially a snowball fight and I assumed that we were on standard territory in that Lumiere was just going to film an event happening. In reality though the snowball fight is tightly controlled by the director as it rarely goes too far from the actual shot. More important is the idea that the action/event is now choreographed to the benefit of the film. In this case my favourite moment of the film is a great bit where a cyclist comes into the middle of this madness, finds himself pelted to the point of falling off and then heads back the way he came. It is very funny and all the better because with so much action you do have to decide to watch him.

As another reviewer has suggested, the make up of the crowd is interesting as well, with men in very proper outfits fighting with women and what look like more working men and it is interesting to wonder what, if anything, the significance of this group all being together in this very childish activity is. Anyway, this film is worth seeing because of how much action Lumière produces as well as the laugh from the well worked entrance (and exit) of the cyclist!

This brief footage of a snowball fight is both fun and funny. It gives a convincing appearance of spontaneity, but at the same time the camera field catches so much that it seems quite likely that at least some planning was involved. In either case, it's one of the lightest and most amusing of the early Lumière features.

The participants include both men and women, most of them rather nicely dressed. Watching adults unashamedly romping around like this is good fun, and it's hard not to think of Laurel and Hardy or other similar performers. Indeed, the bicyclist who happens onto the scene would have fit right in as a character in a Laurel and Hardy comedy.

As you expect with Lumière, the photography is good, but this time it is the amusing antics that will make this one memorable.

As others have noted, what convincingly appears to be a spontaneous snowball fight involving men, women and children from all classes is in all probability a staged event (the likelihood of a wandering cameraman stumbling upon such a scene is highly unlikely) but it is still extremely enjoyable and lent an element of slapstick by the hapless cyclist who wanders into the midst of the fight only to find himself unseated by a barrage of snowballs and beating a hasty and undignified retreat. The film has a terrific sense of liveliness and fun thanks to the obvious pleasure of the participants of the fight - and let's face it; who amongst us doesn't enjoy a good snowball fight?

This one turned out to be quite amusing! The footage is brief but captures the time era nicely and in a fun way. I enjoyed it.

9/10