The First Comedy Film of the History of Cinema

The First Comedy Film

Film Art

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The First Comedy Film of the History of Cinema

The Waterer Watered (Louis Lumiére, 1895), frequently mentioned in the original language as L’arroseur arrosé, lasts about 40 seconds and is considered the first comedy film and the first fiction film in the history of cinema.

What do we mean by “fiction film”? The fact is that the cinema had just begun, the first public showing made by the Lumiére brothers was in the year of this film. So far, all that had been filmed were scenes of everyday life, such as the famous arrival of a train at the station, or the departure of workers from a factory. So far, what had been filmed, what we consider the beginnings of cinema, were “documentary” situations instead of scenes from a script and actors who acted it.

And then comes The Watered Waterer. For this short film, Louis Lumiére “wrote a script” (we do not know if he wrote it literally, but there is a script, which is actually the adaptation of a gag from a comic strip by Hermann Vogel) and the actors acted it out.

This short film, which also means the appearance of humor in the seventh art, was part of that first screening offered by the Lumiére, where the audience went to the Salon Indien du Grand Café, in Paris, and had to pay a ticket for it. It is part of the first commercial film projection.

There is a scene of a gardener watering the garden, when a naughty boy enters the frame and steps on the hose, so that the water stops running. The surprised gardener, who doesn’t understand why the water is not coming out, has no better idea than to bring the end of the hose to his face and looks into it. Then, the boy takes his foot off the hose, and the gardener gets soaked. The last few seconds show the man running after the boy and punishing him.

This is the beginning of humor in cinema. It is physical humor (called “slapstick”-be sure to read the article on slapstick comedies linked at the end of this article). It is humor that is decidedly visceral, simple, direct, and instinctive. A boy makes a joke whose consequence we see coming, it’s obvious, but we still can’t help but laugh. Just like kids.

Image: the boy steps on the gardener’s hose to play a joke in The Watered Waterer (Louis Lumiére, 1895).

Note: a year later, in 1896, Lumiére filmed a second version of L’arroseur arrosé, in which the same gardener and another boy acted.

Recommended links:

The Three Beginnings of Cinema.

Georges Méliès and the Magic of the Cinema.

Charles Chaplin and his character Charlot.

Buster Keaton’s Humor.

The Hays Code.

The Golden Age of Hollywood (Classic Hollywood Cinema).

La Nouvelle Vague.

Italian Neorealism.

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