a-cinema-history.blogspot.com 20 first years of cinema

This short film, one of the first to use camera tricks, depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The earliest extant sound film, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost. It depicts William K.L. Dickson standing in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder.

Workers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.

An impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.

A train arrives at La Ciotat station.

Fantasy tale involving a fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Gently moving through the cabbages and using of lovely gestures, she takes one baby out of there, then makes more magic and delivers two more.

With the help of a magic cauldron, Mephistopheles conjures up a variety of supernatural characters.

Using the same rocking effect previously employed in "Combat naval en Grèce (1897)", the director Georges Méliès recreates the illusion of a small ship in a tempest.

Much to our amazement, an elegant and masterful illusionist detaches his own head effortlessly from his shoulders for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

In a medium closeup shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at a hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.

A humorous subject intended to be run as a part of a railroad scene during the period in which the train is passing through a tunnel.

Dramatized re-enactments of the events of the Dreyfus-affair from 1894 to 1899.

A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.

A boy looks through glasses at various objects, seen magnified.

An elderly gentleman in a silk hat sits on a stool in front of a store on the main street of town. He has a telescope that he focuses on the ankle of a young woman who is a short distance away. Her husband catches the gent looking. What will the two men now do?

A burglar is arrested for a murder. He is condemned to death. Before his execution the murderer dreams of his past, of how he was a bank clerk, then turned to crime. The criminal is then taken out of his cell, and a moment later is executed.

A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.

The story of Jesus Christ from the proclamation of his Nativity to his crucifixion. Impressive scenes and dynamism of the actors prelude to the Italian colossal movies of the silent period.

A fireman rushes into a carriage to rescue a woman from a house fire. He breaks the windowpanes and carries the woman to safety; after dangerous and uncertain moments he also saves the woman's son.

A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.

Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.

Originally 70 minutes in running time, only 17 minutes of the world's first full-length narrative feature film survived in stills and other fragments and tell the story of Ned Kelly, an infamous 19th-century Australian outlaw.

A man is helped by a good fairy to conquer his beloved. Thanks to the talisman she gives him, a sheep's foot, he will triumph from all obstacles.

On a warm and sunny summer's day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing. A gypsy basket peddler happens along, and is angered when the mother refuses to buy his wares. He attacks mother and daughter but is driven off by the father. Later the gypsy sneaks back and kidnaps the girl. A rescue party is organized but the gypsy conceals the child in a 30 gallon barrel which he precariously places on the tail of the wagon. He and his gypsy-wife make their getaway by fording the river with the wagon. The barrel, with Dollie still inside, breaks free, tumbling into into the river; it starts floating toward the peril of a nearby waterfall . . .

An eccentric photographer demonstrates the wonders of technology to a couple who want to be photographed by his innovative wireless procedure that accents one's inner personality. Are they prepared for the harsh truth of the camera's eye?