[Discussion of the First Slapstick Film: "L'Arroseur Arrosé" (1896)]

I've decided to take this course simply to discover why everyone thinks slapstick is so funny. Personally, I have always found slapstick predicable and rather boring. It is exactly the anticipation that others are eagerly eating up that I felt took away from the fun of comedy. For me, being able to see ahead to just what would happen (knowing the Gardner would get squirted in the face with the hose before it happens) is exactly what takes away the fun from slapstick for me. To me, it's always been, "Oh yeah, we knew the guy would get it in the face. What's so funny about that?" or the Keystone Cops ALWAYS wind up in a chase with someone so how funny can that be?

I'm hoping that this course will be able to change my point of view and help me to see what everyone else sees and finds so funny.

I agree totally. I am taking this course for the same reason--I must be missing something, right? I do love dark comedy and screwball comedy, but have never really enjoyed more than a few minutes of slapstick. Several of the films on the syllabus are what I think of as screwball, where the jokes and insults are more verbal than physical as in slapstick. I am also interested in the technology behind filmmaking and am delighted that we are starting at the very beginning.

[Discussion of the First Slapstick Film: "L'Arroseur Arrosé" (1896)]

I am interested by the boy. Who is he? If it is at a house, and it is a house gardener--is the boy his or the family who pays the gardener? Perhaps it is also funny to see the boy brought down to the gardener's level when the gardener decides to chase after the boy and make him pay for what he has done. A upper class "snooty" kid getting what is coming to him. I know I enjoy seeing someone high and mighty being taken down a peg or two.

I read somewhere that the man who plays the gardener (Francois Clerc) was Lumiere's real-life gardener. The boy was a factory worker from one of Lumiere's earlier films.

[Discussion of the First Slapstick Film: "L'Arroseur Arrosé" (1896)]

Up until this short, films were more documentary in nature--portraying moving scenes of every day events (a sneeze, a train approaching, workers leaving a factory). The emphasis had been definitely on the technology itself and not on the narrative value. The first audience must have been astounded and delighted to imagine the possibilities of this new art form. Ironically, the Lumiere brothers were themselves more interested in the technology and not the creative value of film. They incorrectly imagined that film was a passing fad and got out of filming/directing just a few years later to focus on improving the technology behind the lens. But they definitely had a great sense of humor. Here is a photo from Luminous Lint that shows off both their newly developed color photographic technology and their dry sense of humor: http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/image/446412017488925809656003/