Bike rider in silent film from 1897 never saw it coming
Riding a bike in the snow is difficult enough without any additional challenges. This short film from the 19th century shows that even after 125 years, some things never change.
ByAdriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer
Updated Feb 12, 2024 1:01 PM EDT
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A lot was happening around the world during 1897.
Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah took office as the first female state senator elected in the United States, and William McKinley was inaugurated as the 25th president of the nation. In April, John H. McDermott was the first to cross the finish line of the first Boston Marathon, and English physicist J.J. Thomson announced his discovery of the electron. The Greco-Turkish War was declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire before ending in a Turkish victory within the same year, Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in London, and one of the oldest continuously-operating movie theatersin the world opened in Washington, Iowa, although first as an opera house.
Meanwhile, over in France, two brothers released a 50-second, black-and-white silent film that would capture a new way for people to view the weather.
The Lumière brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière ( 19 October 1862 - 10 April 1954 ) and Louis Jean Lumière ( 5 October 1864 - 6 June 1948 ), were manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers. Original edition from my own archives Source : Spiel und Sport 1899
Two years prior, Louis and Auguste Lumière patented a Cinematographe in 1895 after their father had told them about a demonstration of Thomas Edison's Kinetograph, the first motion-picture camera. The brothers' invention was a combination of the movie camera and a projector, allowing for them to play the recorded film for an audience to watch rather than a single person. That same year, they created the film La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière, or Workers Leaving the LumièreFactory, which is considered the first motion picture.
The brothers would open cinemas to show their films, and in 1897, they released the whimsical Bataille de Neige, or Snowball Fight, shot and directed by Louis Lumière.
The 50-second clip captures a group of people in Lyons, France, playing in snow and the chaos ensuing as a snowball fight between two sides turns into a surprise attack on a bypassing cyclist. The cyclist is knocked off the bike, and the group continues to bombard him with snowballs until he is able to stand back up, snatch up his bike and quickly pedal away.
Like in the current day and age, there were many things the Lumière brothers could have filmed as world events brewed and boiled, but instead, they chose to make one of their many short films about people playing in the snow -- perhaps one of the earliest examples of cinematic snow.
In recent years, the video has been revamped -- colorized and smoothed out by a handful of different video editors.
Another YouTube user, Zezinesh Mrkusich, commented, "Despite being a silent video, I can still hear laughter and joy being had."
While the Lumière brothers' film might have been the first depiction of snow in film, snowball fights have been portrayed throughout art across the centuries, from recent but timely photographs to old woodcuts crafted in the 1500s and beyond.
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News / Winter Weather
Bike rider in silent film from 1897 never saw it coming
Riding a bike in the snow is difficult enough without any additional challenges. This short film from the 19th century shows that even after 125 years, some things never change.
By Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer
Updated Feb 12, 2024 1:01 PM EDT
A lot was happening around the world during 1897.
Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah took office as the first female state senator elected in the United States, and William McKinley was inaugurated as the 25th president of the nation. In April, John H. McDermott was the first to cross the finish line of the first Boston Marathon, and English physicist J.J. Thomson announced his discovery of the electron. The Greco-Turkish War was declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire before ending in a Turkish victory within the same year, Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in London, and one of the oldest continuously-operating movie theaters in the world opened in Washington, Iowa, although first as an opera house.
Meanwhile, over in France, two brothers released a 50-second, black-and-white silent film that would capture a new way for people to view the weather.
The Lumière brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière ( 19 October 1862 - 10 April 1954 ) and Louis Jean Lumière ( 5 October 1864 - 6 June 1948 ), were manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905, which places them among the earliest filmmakers.
Original edition from my own archives
Source : Spiel und Sport 1899
Two years prior, Louis and Auguste Lumière patented a Cinematographe in 1895 after their father had told them about a demonstration of Thomas Edison's Kinetograph, the first motion-picture camera. The brothers' invention was a combination of the movie camera and a projector, allowing for them to play the recorded film for an audience to watch rather than a single person. That same year, they created the film La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière, or Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, which is considered the first motion picture.
The brothers would open cinemas to show their films, and in 1897, they released the whimsical Bataille de Neige, or Snowball Fight, shot and directed by Louis Lumière.
The 50-second clip captures a group of people in Lyons, France, playing in snow and the chaos ensuing as a snowball fight between two sides turns into a surprise attack on a bypassing cyclist. The cyclist is knocked off the bike, and the group continues to bombard him with snowballs until he is able to stand back up, snatch up his bike and quickly pedal away.
Like in the current day and age, there were many things the Lumière brothers could have filmed as world events brewed and boiled, but instead, they chose to make one of their many short films about people playing in the snow -- perhaps one of the earliest examples of cinematic snow.
In recent years, the video has been revamped -- colorized and smoothed out by a handful of different video editors.
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"It's surreal to watch people from more than a hundred years ago having fun in much the same way we would today," YouTube user Connor Nicholas commented on a video edited by "Nineteenth century videos. Back to life."
Another YouTube user, Zezinesh Mrkusich, commented, "Despite being a silent video, I can still hear laughter and joy being had."
While the Lumière brothers' film might have been the first depiction of snow in film, snowball fights have been portrayed throughout art across the centuries, from recent but timely photographs to old woodcuts crafted in the 1500s and beyond.
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