2. 1895- The Lumiere Brothers

On June 10^th 1895 in Paris, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, presented the first commercial exhibition of motion film to the paying public. The brothers also took this opportunity to demonstrate their latest breakthrough device which acted as a camera, a projector and a printer and is known as the Cinematograph. Within the 20 minute programme were 10 short documentary style clips and amongst these was ‘L’Arrouseur Arrose’ translated to ‘The Sprinkler Sprinkled’. This silent slapstick film is considered to be the first film to use comedy and also portray a fictional story. The film is a mere 49 seconds long and starred Francois Clerc and Benoit Duval. L’Arrosseur Arrose marked the beginning of a promising career for the Lumiere brothers.

http://www.holonet.khm.de/visual_alchemy/lumiere.html
http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Am-Aw/L-Arroseur-Arrose.html
Both accessed  20.02.2011