Cinematic Era: 1897 Vintage

Pobyt cara w Spale (1897), also known as The Tsar's Stay in Spala, is a Polish silent documentary film directed by Bolesław Matuszewski. It documents the visit of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to the town of Spala, where he stayed during a hunting trip. This film is one of the earliest examples of Polish cinema, and Matuszewski's work is notable for his role in the development of early documentary filmmaking in Poland. Like many films from this period, it is brief, and its primary focus is to capture a historical moment rather than to tell a narrative story.

A black poodle jumping.

A city view, rich in movement, shot at the corner of the Schauplatzgasse in Bern.

Military exercises in Basel.

A battery being set up.

Cadet manoeuvres at the Aarau Children’s Festival (the Maienzug).

Old film of a two-stage train arriving in France, 1897.

Second part of the film about people exiting the Church of the Pillar. A few days after shooting 'Salida de misa de doce del Pilar', Jimeno decides to shoot a new version of the film, the first remake of Spanish cinema.

Short film where a Spanish coal factory is filmed.

Leopoldo Fregoli kissing a lady.

Presents views of a parade in Montreux, including carts and donkeys covered with flowers, horsedrawn floats, bicycles, and people in native dress.

People carry candles in a procession in Lourdes.

Surrounded by an escort and preceded by the Prefect, President Félix Faure saluted as he advanced.

The Suburban is run at Sheepshead Bay track, Coney Island. Several views of the great race are given. The parade to the post, the start, the finish showing Ben Brush winning, Simms up, with the others strung out, tearing down the stretch in the dust, under whip and spur. Then the weighing out, jockeys saluting, dismounting, and un-saddling.

Queen Victoria at a Buckingham Palace garden party held in June 1897, following the diamond jubilee celebrations.

Brief actuality footage showing Queen Victoria's open landau, bearing the Princess of Wales and Princess Christian. The location and filmmaker remain unidentified.

Exercises and jumps on parallel bars.

After several athletes have tried unsuccessfully to pole vault, one last gymnast performs a perfect jump.

Two gymnasts successively perform various exercises on a pommel horse.

"This is one of the most remarkable views that has ever been taken, and shows a modern high-power gun in act of discharge. The immense gun, weighing 67,000 pounds, is seen to rise in the air, discharge its projectile, and sink back behind the fortification ready for reloading. Showing the loading, raising, firing and recoil of the big ten-inch coast defense gun at the Government proving grounds, Sandy Hook, New Jersey. A remarkably fine picture." —AMB Picture Catalogue

A lost film directed by Georges Melies

Lumière Catalogue No. 705. A view of the warehouses and docks taken from a local train in Liverpool, ending at the Princess Dock station.

A few men working at the Jonage canel, Lyon.

Showing the Austrian Emperor laying the corner stone of a new military barracks.

On the Coney Island steeple-chase, the wooden horses dash up and down the inclines with weird effect. The picture shows a crowd of people, including a number of pretty girls riding down the course.

"Result of a shot from the ten-inch disappearing gun."

A shot of traffic, Place de Brouckère in Bruxelles.

People carry candles in a procession in Lourdes.

Short released in 1897.

A group of friends playing tennis.

Street scene in Liverpool.

An elderly man wearing a silk top hat, mesmerises sparrows –and his audience- in a public square.

Another Edison film shot in San Francisco at the Fisherman's Wharf. Once again the camera is looking down on a group of men doing their jobs.

"It dashes up just in time to gather in the crowd of rowdies that are fighting. The policemen hustle the toughs off to the station house."

Several shots of the carnival in Nice, floats and parade costumes, passing along the crowded streets.

Patients on stretchers are lifted off a cart and carried toward the shrine at Lourdes.

Accompanied by the sound of drums and the clapping of the audience, two women and two men perform a dance.

While a group of seated women sing and clap their hands, young girls dance with small steps.