Bataille de boules de neige

Bataille de boules de neige (transl. Snowball Fight), also known as Snowballing,[1] is an 1896 French short silent film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. Filmed in Lyons, France, it depicts a number of individuals engaged in a snowball fight on a city street.

Bataille de boules de neige
Directed byLouis Lumière
Produced byLouis Lumière
Release date
  • 1896 (1896)
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Plot

The camera is centred on a pathway made through a snow-covered city street. On both side of the pathway, several men and women are engaged in a snowball fight. A cyclist rides into the path of the fight, and is hit by snowballs, causing him to lose control of his bicycle and fall to the ground. His cap is flung onto the pathway. One male participant in the engagement grabs hold of the cyclist's bicycle and lifts it off the ground, and the fallen cyclist scrambles to his feet and yanks his bicycle away from the participant. After retrieving possession of his bicycle, the cyclist climbs back atop it and rides away.[2]

Production

Bataille de boules de neige was shot in Lyon, France,[2] with a cinématographe, an all-in-one camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. As with all early Lumière movies, this film was made in a 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Current status

Given its age, the copyright on this short film has now expired. It is featured in a number of film collections, including The Movies Begin – A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894–1913.[3] In 2020 the New York Times did a feature article about the film, written by Sam Anderson, after a Russian amateur film restorer posted a cleaned up and colourized version of the film to YouTube. The result is "shockingly modern" said Anderson.[4]

References
  1. Barnes, John (1983). The Rise of the Cinema in Gt. Britain. pp. 263, 266. ISBN 978-0900873515.
  2. McKim, Kristi (2013). Cinema as Weather: Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric Change. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-0415894128.
  3. "DVD". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
  4. Anderson, Sam (5 November 2020). "Watch This Snowball Fight From 1897 for a Jolt of Pure Joy". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2020.


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