The Biter Bit
Encyclopedia
The Biter Bit is an 1899
British short
black-and-white silent
comedy film
, produced by the Bamforth Company, featuring a boy playing a practical joke on a gardener by grasping his hose to stop the water flow and then letting go again when the garden looks down it to check. The film, "is an English remake," of Auguste and Louis Lumière
's L'Arroseur Arrosé
(1895), according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "providing a good illustration of how early film production companies cheerfully plagiarised each other's work," with, "a few minor differences between, most notably a rather greater sense of space and depth in the Bamforth version," and "three distinct planes to the action." It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is featured in Paul Merton
's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
1899 in film
The year 1899 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*T.C. Hepworth invents Biokam, a 17.5 mm format which also is the first format to have a center perforation.*John Alfred Prestwich invents a 13 mm amateur format....
British short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
black-and-white silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, produced by the Bamforth Company, featuring a boy playing a practical joke on a gardener by grasping his hose to stop the water flow and then letting go again when the garden looks down it to check. The film, "is an English remake," of Auguste and Louis Lumière
Auguste and Louis Lumière
The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...
's L'Arroseur Arrosé
L'Arroseur Arrosé
L'Arroseur arrosé is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent comedy film directed and produced by Louis Lumière and starring François Clerc and Benoît Duval...
(1895), according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "providing a good illustration of how early film production companies cheerfully plagiarised each other's work," with, "a few minor differences between, most notably a rather greater sense of space and depth in the Bamforth version," and "three distinct planes to the action." It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is featured in Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.