Two boxers climb into barrels and proceed to pummel each other in this novelty film from the Lumieres.
The composition of this picture is simple, but effective; all the action takes place within the frame and the boxing is very crude and funny. One of the boxers pounds on the other, who ducks his head into the barrel, which makes the barrel tip and fall. It's surprising and amusing. Given that a lot of Lumiere films are pictures of dignified public events --parades in uniform and politicians shaking hands with each other -- a lot are ethnographically interesting -- films of African tribes dancing and French peasants farming -- and others are studies in composition and movement -- trains, panoramas, and the Brooklyn Bridge -- silly stuff like this broadened a program.