Partie de boules (1896) watch online HD

This is one of the early films of the Lumiere brothers which merely document action, rather than telling a story. As ephemeral as they are, many of the very brief Lumiere films are nonetheless of vital historic interest for what they show us of life in that time.

'Partie de boules' is one of the less interesting Lumiere efforts, as it merely shows a few middle-aged members of the French bourgeoise playing lawn bowls, the same game known in Italy as bocce. I was intrigued to see that the players here are male and female competing against each other, the women not showing any disadvantage despite the elaborate Victorian garments and corsets they are wearing.

I was also faintly amused that none of these bowlers are especially good at the game ... at least, not in the brief footage we see here. Oh, well.

Partie de boules (1896)

The Lumiere Brothers made this film, which shows a group of people playing a game of boules. If you're familiar with the films from this era then you know that more times than not the filmmakers would just set up a camera to capture just about anything. This here was more than likely staged and especially when you see the house in the background as well as what the people are wearing. More than likely we are looking at some rich folks and it seems that they may even be neighbors or something of the Lumiere's. With all of that being said, there's certainly nothing here that changed film history but it's a pleasant enough of a film for those who enjoy the movies of this era.

These early Lumiere films rarely offer anything more than a moment in time, but having the privilege of even seeing moments of time through these films is amazing. It's the closest you'll ever get to actual time travel. So, when watching this somewhat bland short you must keep that in mind. All we see are several men and woman playing lawn bowling and having a gay old time. Sure, there's no story but it remains watchable because of the historical interest side of the picture. Other than that, all you see here is...well, some people playing a game of lawn bowling.

The Lumière brothers did not make only one, but two boules films in 1896, almost 120 years from now. The interesting thing in this one is that we actually see women play the game as well. The other short film only included men. And apart from the fact that films were silent back in 1896 and black-and-white obviously, you can take a couple more things from this video, for example that men loved to wear hats and usually had mustaches back in the day. Other than that, there is nothing really outstanding about this film. In 1896, movies already ran for almost a minute and not just 5 seconds anymore like it was the case not much before that. Not a great watch by any means, but a solid historic document.