Amazing Vintage Footage Captured a Snowball Fight Scene in Lyon, France in 1897

Bataille de neige (Snow Fight) is an 1897 French short silent film produced by the Lumiére brothers. Filmed in Lyon, France, it depicts a number of individuals engaged in a snowball fight on a city street.

The camera is centered 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. At first they’re not aimed at anyone but soon a man comes along riding a bicycle.

Bataille de neige is one of the best known films from Lumiére, which is easy to understand why since the image of people throwing snowballs is just downright fun. Even when viewing this film today you can’t help but watch it with a smile as it’s clear everyone is having a good time and we’re given a twist with a minor subplot involving the bicycle rider.

The film was shot 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.

The First Real Motion Picture Ever Made: "Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon" (1895)

Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon (French: La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon), also known as Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory, is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. It is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years.

The film consists of a single scene in which workers leave the Lumière factory. The workers are mostly female who exit the large building 25 Rue St. Victor, Montplaisir on the outskirts of Lyon, France, as if they had just finished a day's work.

Three separate versions of this film exist. There are a number of differences between these, for example the clothing style changes demonstrating the different seasons in which they were filmed. They are often referred to as the "one horse," "two horses," and "no horse" versions, in reference to a horse-drawn carriage that appears in the first two versions (pulled by one horse in the original and two horses in the first remake).

Trivia:

• It was the first film ever to be projected to a paying audience.
• Recent findings have produced two more copies of this scene, where all the workers didn't manage to leave the factory in time. The big dog appears in them all.
• This film's existence was forgotten shortly after it was screened. It was rediscovered in 1985 in Lyon, France, 90 years after it was shot.