Cinematic Era: 1898 Vintage

A religious procession during the Holy Week in Seville, Spain.

Nero, seated on a throne, has slaves summoned. Each drinks poison and dies, the second even though he can see the corpse of his predecessor.

Workmen fix a walkway with bitumen.

A depiction in the hanging of Edward Heinson, an assumed criminal assault convict in Jacksonville, Florida.

A showcase of trapeze artist Alciede Capitaine, billed as “The Perfect Woman,” whose daring feats on the flying bar combined grace with breathtaking athleticism. Produced by Edison in 1898, this title should not be confused with Dickson’s earlier 1894 short Mlle. Capitaine, which also featured the performer.

One of the greatest of black art pictures. The conjurer appears before the audience, with his head in its proper place. He then removes his head, and throwing it in the air, it appears on the table opposite another head, and both detached heads sing in unison. The conjurer then removes it a third time. You then see all three of his heads, which are exact duplicates, upon the table at one time, while the conjurer again stands before the audience with his head perfectly intact, singing in unison with the three heads upon the table. He closes the picture by bowing himself from the stage.

An illusionist makes a woman disappear in thin air. There is no credited director for this film, although three different persons get attributed, Gaston Breteau, Alice Guy or Georges Hatot.

Studies on human pathological locomotion.

There is a burglar on the rooftop of a Manhattan office building, and he is trying to break in. Two women spot him, and one of them begins beating him with a broom as they wait for help to arrive. Soon others do appear on the scene to help, but by now the burglar has decided that he is going to put up a fight in an attempt to escape.

One of the two earliest horror films ever made. This film is presumed lost.

Cops chase a pair of burglars on the rooftops of the city. Gaston Breteau filmed the original film in early 1898 for Lumiére, and also the remake in late 1898 for Gaumont.

The Statue of Liberty in right profile; No people, no flags rippling in the wind, no seagulls flapping past to mar the unmoving image of the Statue of Liberty.

Staging of the title event.

A short documentary capturing the officers and crew of the USS Brooklyn during a naval parade in Brooklyn, New York, on October 1, 1898, following the Spanish-American War. The film features the ship’s 300 Marines and the Marine Band, reflecting public celebrations of the U.S. Navy’s role in the conflict.

In this scene is shown a magician behind an ordinary table, upon which he suddenly and mysteriously causes to appear a large box, into which he leaps. The sides of the box fall to the ground, but instead of containing the magician a lively clown steps forth who further mystifies the audience by causing the box to disappear, and in its place is seen a fully laid table with a smoking dinner, to which the clown applies himself. The table, however, suddenly disappears much to the astonishment of the clown, who is confronted by the magician in the garb of Mephistopheles. This he suddenly changes to that of a sculptor, and in the background is seen a pedestal with the bust of a young lady, which comes to life as the sculptor applies the mallet and chisel.

March Past During Corpus Christi Feast in Hradčany

Scene of the last supper.

A hand-colored ride along the Bangor-Conwy-Colwyn Bay railroad filmed from an express train from the London and North Western Railway; Stations, vistas and a tunnel under the Conwy Castle (misspelled in the title) in North Wales.

A blind man begging for change tries to outsmart a cop. There is no known director for this film, although it is included in the filmography of Alice Guy-Blaché.

A method soldier boys have for amusing themselves in their leisure moments. New comrades are frequently initiated by the old-fashioned sport of tossing in a blanket. The newly arrived recruit, who is the victim of their sport, enjoys himself, perhaps, less than the other participants.

A poster hanger gets a fight started. This is version 2 that was made and screened for the public.

A lost film. Georges Méliès also directed a film entitled Faust aux enfers in 1903 that is frequently confused with this one, but it has little to do with the story of Faust.

Inspired by The X-Rays (1987), is currently presumed lost.

A hypnotist tricks his patients. There is no credited director for this film, although three different persons get attributed, Gaston Breteau, Alice Guy or Georges Hatot.

He sits asleep at a bare table; old witch enters, raps three times, then disappears; cavalier sees table spread for a sumptuous repast. Mephistopheles appears; then the old witch, who suddenly changes to a beautiful young girl. The changes and magical appearances are startling and instantaneous.

The scene opens in an artist's studio where the unfinished statue of William Tell stands upon a pedestal. A clown appears and sticks a clay arm and clay head on the statue, thus completing it. He places a large brick on top of the head to make it stick. When he turns his back the statue turns into a living representation of William Tell. (Edison Catalog)

“A file of Spanish soldiers line up the Cubans against a blank wall and fire a volley. The flash of rifles and drifting smoke make a very striking picture.” (Edison film catalog)

Thieves are chased by police on rooftops.

A skeleton dances joyously, often collapsing into a heap of bones and quickly putting itself back together.

Views of Buffalo Bills Wild West Show.

An adaptation of the folk tale.

The SS 'St. Louis' departs from Southampton Docks

Sailors training with swords.

Two bearded sages engage ina dispute before a large cauldron, from which they summon up Mephistopheles.

Soldiers ambush a house. This is the Alice Guy version, not to be confused with the less accessible Lumiere of the same title from the same year.

Agents chase down rooftop criminals, and after a series of grotesque twists and turns, they finally get their hands on them.

"The Worthing Station is some distance from the shore, and whenever there is a wreck the life-boat is dragged to the scene on a huge truck drawn by eight horses. Our picture shows the life-boat responding to an alarm. The horses start out from the station at a gallop, and the members of the crew run beside the boat. This negative is unusually fine photographically."

Santa arrives at a house on Christmas Eve to deliver his presents for the children.

Divers go to work on a wrecked ship (the battleship Maine that was blown up in Havana harbour during the Spanish-American War), surrounded by curiously disproportionate fish.

Footage of the Chicago fire department in the 1890s.

Rickshaws and pedestrians traffic on the street.

A hypnotism scene from the Lumière Brothers.

This Victorian duel between knife-wielding women was taken from an existing stage production, thought to be the Drury Lane theatre melodrama 'Women and Wine'. The actresses are believed to be Edith Blanche and Beatrice Homer.

The Humpty Dumpty Circus is the first animated short film created in stop-motion technique. It features a circus with acrobats and animals in motion.

Several men in a basement barbershop become excited by women walking past the window. The ankles and knees of the passersby are visible to the men below, causing pandemonium among the barbershop customers. Possibly released in 1901.

The Passion Play of Oberammergau (1898) presents scenes from the famed Bavarian passion play, dramatizing the final days of Jesus Christ—from his entry into Jerusalem to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Filmed by the Edison Company, it offered late-19th-century audiences a rare cinematic glimpse of the world-renowned Oberammergau tradition.

This picture was taken after the battle of Las Guaymas, and shows a large number of wounded soldiers embarking in a rowboat from an extemporized dock...

Reconstruction, with models, of the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana. Samir Benhalilou contacted Méliès' granddaughter and she confirmed that no copies of this film survive.

Come Along, Do! is an 1898 British short silent comedy film, produced and directed by Robert W. Paul. The film was of 1 minute duration, but only forty-some seconds have survived. The whole of the second shot is only available as film stills. The film features an elderly man at an art gallery who takes a great interest in a nude statue to the irritation of his wife. The film has cinematographic significance as the first example of film continuity. It was, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "one of the first films to feature more than one shot." In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an art exhibition having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside.

This picture has been very popular wherever it has been shown on the Biograph. To begin with, the film is unusually fine photographically, and the picture is taken from a point of view which shows the immense distances of Camp Wikoff with its multitude of tents in the background.

Rickshaws and pedestrians are moving in the street. Not to be confused with Constant Girel's "Une rue a Tokyo."

"This picture was taken from the front of a rapidly moving launch through one of the most beautiful stretches of the Grand Canal, showing many magnificent historical palaces. The photographic work is unusually fine."

Earliest known example of African American intimacy on screen. This version is shot with a wider view and shows more of the vaudeville stylings of Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown and their stage act.

A splendid picture of the President, coming down the steps of the Treasury Building and walking towards the camera. [Description refers to a re-issued print when Roosevelt had been elected President]

Pedestrian and rickshaws traffic on Shijo Kobashi bridge, in Kyoto.

In this movie, dancer Ella Lola performs a Turkish variation of a "Danse Du Ventre", the oriental belly dance. In her dance she shakes, twists and turns around in a very energetic dance. The elements of Turkish folklore can be felt despite the lack of sound as the differences from this and other belly dances are very notorious when her traditional Turkish dress swings in a marvellous way as she dances. Unlike other films about exotic dances, Lola's movies (the other was "Ella Lola, a la Trilby") were of a less erotic nature and more focused on the realistic representation of the dance. A professional dancer since a very young age, Lola's dancing is very graceful and showcases an enormous control over her body.

Short reportage

The first scene in the 1898 Passion Play