Cinematic Era: 1896 Vintage

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

The Count of Montebello and General de Boisdeffre arrive at the coronation of Nicholas II of Russia.

A newlywed couple in front of their wedding-bed after their wedding. The woman undresses in front of her husband. A French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made.

In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.

A train arrives at Perrache station. We see the view from aboard the train.

They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.

The dancer Fatima, well-known for her dancing shows at the World's Exhibition in 1893, performs for the camera. She opens her act by twirling around a few times, and then she does the 'muscle dance' for which she had attracted considerable notoriety.

Auguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.

4 horse drawn fire brigade carts pull out from Newcastle fire station in the UK as part of a filmed demonstration

The first part of the film shows an actuality street scene of traffic in the Strand. Behind the traffic we can see the entrance to the Gaiety Theatre on the Strand, advertising its latest show 'My Girl'. The second part is a different film altogether, spliced onto the first and is R W Paul’s Turn Out of a Fire Brigade filmed in November 1896 in Newcastle at the Westgate Road fire station. The film date is 1896.

A stationary camera looks across Burgundy's river Sâone toward a small military encampment. Four horsemen enter the water in the foreground, each riding his horse as it swims across toward camp or leading it by the bridle as they swim

A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.

A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed, and a battle ensues in hilarious comic fashion.

A stationary camera placed amidships looks toward the round end of a 10- or 12-foot boiler that's been loaded onto the open deck. Three men climb down from atop the boiler and then remove their ladder. Four or five other workers tie the boiler down to the deck. Their pace is leisurely. In the background is a busy harbor.

A fellow in a wide-brimmed hat, with a willowy stick for a rod and a baited hook, sits down on a plank hanging over a bridge above a stream. He sticks the rod under his seat and picks up his bottle to take a swig. Behind him creeps a joker who removes the large flagstone that's holding the fisherman's plank in place.

“The watchful father disturbs a dream of bliss, and the bucolic lover is taught a lesson. He made a great hit.” (Edison film catalog)

Three friends are playing cards in a beer garden. One of them orders drinks. The waitress comes back with a bottle of wine and three glasses on a tray. The man serves his friends. They clink glasses and drink. Then the man asks for a newspaper. He reads a funny story in it and the three friends burst out laughing while the waitress merely smiles.

Children dig for clams on the beach

Watering the Flowers (French: L'Arroseur) was an 1896 French short comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's company Star Film and is numbered 6 in its catalogues. The film was made in imitation of the more famous Louis Lumière film L'Arroseur Arrosé. It is currently presumed lost.

A boat returns to port, where passengers are helped ashore.

Film made at Hyde Park Corner in 1896 by an unknown filmmaker. It looks south west across Grosvenor Place. The southern wing of St George's Hospital (today the Lanesborough Hotel) can be seen on the right of the picture. The road stretching away in the centre of the picture is Grosvenor Crescent. The busy two way horsedrawn traffic movement is seen on what would today be Grosvenor Place and Apsley Way (the road layout now is different to 1896). The approximate camera position would be today on Apsley Way, just east of the Royal Artillery Memorial. Not to be confused with another Hyde Park Corner film by British Pathé made in the same year but with a different view. (That film looks north towards the triumphal arch at the corner of Hyde Park next to Apsley House.)

Three men are sitting around a table, two of them playing a game of Écarté. When the game is over, a domestic serves drinks.

The Alhambra Girls perform a dance at Alhambra Theatre, London. Lost.

Teasing tigers with meat.

An actuallity film of a fairground carousel in action. Filmmaker unknown but it has been suggested it is R.W. Paul. The film was made on Hampstead heath, London, UK.

A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Note: This is a LOST film; the existing film of the same name is the remake from 1900.

Based on a real event that occurred between two deputies, in Chapultepec Park.

A male lion, right next to bars that are about 6 or 8 inches apart, keenly watches a uniformed zoo attendant toss small morsels of food into the cage. The lion alternates between finding the food on the cage floor and reaching through the bars to swipe at the man, who stays alarmingly close to the beast. In the background are the large rocks and brick wall at the back of the lion's habitat.

Young boys going into the sea water by Brighton's West Pier in the UK to pick up pennies thrown in by people on the pier.

Filmed in 1896 by Alexandre Promio for the Lumière company, this short actuality presents one of the earliest traveling shots in cinema. With the camera mounted on a gondola, the film glides along Venice’s Grand Canal, capturing passing gondolas, bustling waterfront activity, and the city’s iconic architecture from a moving perspective. This simple yet groundbreaking technique introduced audiences to a new way of experiencing motion on screen.

A stationary camera looks west across Niagara Falls from the United States' side (the Niagara River rushes toward the falls from right to left). Virtually overlooking the falls and surrounded by the swift current not far from the camera is a small island where six or eight tourists watch the water, talk, and move about.

A burning wagon is dragged from the barn by the firemen, and four horses are rescued from the flames by the stablemen. Thick volumes of smoke pour from the doors and windows. (Edison catalog)

A staged film where over 100 cyclists cycle towards the camera.

A short black and white film in which a fixed camera records a busy New York street, Broadway.

A tramp steals a housewife's pie, and is pursued by her bulldog, which latches onto his rear as he scrambles over a fence.

Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, on horseback, parade in front of the cheering crowd, during the inauguration ceremony of William I's monument in Breslau, Germany (nowadays Wroclaw, Poland).

Actuality film. Late 19th century General Officer ranks and higher cross to a ship over a gangplank. As VIPs they meet some people which we don't get to see, then cross back again, getting caught in a crowd melée at the top of the stairs from the quayside.

The Czar in France - Procession of the troops.

An ostrich pulls a cart carrying young women wearing ostrich-feather hats.

Vaudeville dancer Amy Muller performs a portion of her stage routine, which features dancing on her toes. She dances on one toe for part of the performance. Later, she also twirls and does cartwheels.

The first of two Lumiere wall demo films. As workers carry wheelbarrows full of rubble away, a wall tips over and collapses in a cloud of dust. The workers then return to clear away the debris.

The rough sea crashing upon rocks.

The Boxing Kangaroo is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for exhibition on Robert W. Paul’s peep show Kinetoscopes, featuring a young boy boxing with a kangaroo. The film was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme, originally shown in a portable booth at Hull Fair by Midlands photographer George Williams, donated to the National Fairground Archive was identified as being from this film.

Native Mexican people grouped in front of the camera.

The short film is just a shot of the Oxford versus Cambridge University Boat Race. However, it is extremely important because, filmed on March 30 1895, it is the earliest film from Great Britain.

A group of children are encouraged to play in a park by two men. Some play a skipping game. One of the other children refuses and eventually runs away. Another child is fascinated by the camera and stares at it throughout, even when encouraged by one of the men to play. IN the background, traffic passes and pedestrians stroll past behind a railing on an upper level. The children wear sunhats, indicating the weather is very sunny.

Two girls do one of their chores. Standing alongside a tree-lined farmhouse, two children who are about ten and four years old toss grain to a flock of about 50 domesticated ducks. A woman watches them briefly and then moves on. The older girl has her grain in a bucket, the younger one's grain is in her apron. The children stay in one spot, as does the camera; it's the ducks that move around. Chickens are in the background; only one braves the ducks' territory.

Two children, playing in the garden, with a dog and a cat.

A young woman takes off several layers of clothing.

Francis Doublier does bicycle tricks in the street.

A small boat is approaching waterfalls, shrouded in thick fog, in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland.

The royal family of Italy go for a walk in the park.