I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place but that's about it.
This film is essentially a snowball fight and I assumed that we were on standard territory in that Lumiere was just going to film an event happening. In reality though the snowball fight is tightly controlled by the director as it rarely goes too far from the actual shot. More important is the idea that the action/event is now choreographed to the benefit of the film. In this case my favourite moment of the film is a great bit where a cyclist comes into the middle of this madness, finds himself pelted to the point of falling off and then heads back the way he came. It is very funny and all the better because with so much action you do have to decide to watch him.
As another reviewer has suggested, the make up of the crowd is interesting as well, with men in very proper outfits fighting with women and what look like more working men and it is interesting to wonder what, if anything, the significance of this group all being together in this very childish activity is. Anyway, this film is worth seeing because of how much action Lumière produces as well as the laugh from the well worked entrance (and exit) of the cyclist!
