Fishing for Goldfish (1895) User Reviews

Lesser Lumiere

[boblipton · 6/10 · 15 August 2012]

This is a pleasantly set-up Lumiere subject in which a toddler pothers around a bowl filled with goldfish. Its composition will please the viewer.

That sounds like the sort of thing you might read in a catalogue of Lumiere films issued about the time, hoping to make the exhibitors buy copies and show them often enough to wear them out and buy new copies. However, while it certainly has good composition, the lack of motion makes this a bad motion picture. Motion pictures were too new to have their own aesthetics and the Lumieres, coming out of photography, were learning them as they went along. Sometimes they nailed that combination of a frame in which things moved around constantly while remaining in composition. Sometimes, as here, they wound up with little more than a pleasant photograph.

Fishing for Goldfish (1895)

[Michael_Elliott · 22 December 2016]

La Peche aux poissons (1895)

This early film from the Lumiere Brothers has a little girl standing over a fish bowl where she's fishing for goldfish (which is also the American title). If you're a fan of these early actuality movies then you'll probably enjoy this one. The child is certainly cute and charming enough to keep your interest through the one minute running time. It's also fairly fascinating getting to see what her clothing looked like. Those 1895 styles were certainly something! Obviously you're either a fan of these films or not. I personally really enjoy watching them and this was an entertaining one.

How to shape a fisherman

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 12 October 2013]

We see a person, maybe the parent, hold a small child next to a goldfish bowl and the child watches what's going on in there. It puts its hand in the bowl and tries to touch or even catch a fish, but comes up short. The baby wears a nice white dress which is in terms of style and shape even not too uncommon these days and a white baby hat. The aquarium reminded me more of a vase and that's something you don't see too often these days anymore. In any case, I found this short film rather uninteresting, so only one to watch really for the biggest silent film enthusiasts and there's better work from Lumière, also from 1895. Maybe the baby used this early experience and became a fisherman in the first half of the 20th century. Here, however, the goldfish were still too slippery, smart and speedy.

The Film Industry and Infancy

[PCC0921 · 10/10 · 26 November 2022]

This film, along with nine other films, was shown at a Paris, mini-film festival, by pioneering filmmakers, the Lumiere brothers, in December of 1895. This fifth movie, ever shown to a paying audience, is actually a really great ine to see. You immediately start trying to figure out what is going on in the scene. All I could think of is, "dude, don't put that 130 year old baby in that vase". This is totally the 1895 version of a TikTok video. It features Auguste Lumiere having fun with his baby, as they play with a vase full of goldfish. It is a fitting abstract with an infant being showcased in a film, during the infancy of motion pictures. It does deserve an A+, since it was one of the first.

9.9 (A+ MyGrade) = 10 IMDB.

I Want My Fishies!

[Tornado_Sam · 22 November 2017]

In this short film, similar to "Baby's Dinner" in some regards, a young child wearing a white dress, held by her father, pokes around inside a goldfish bowl while occasionally glancing up at the camera proudly. It's kind of interesting but I wonder if there wasn't some staging in here. It really must have been quite funny when first made and audiences must have really gotten a kick outta it. If you like the Lumiere Brother's work then this is a good one as for the time it was probably more entertaining than watching cabs on a busy street. It also has some value for being one of the earlier uses of a close-up shot.