Cinematic Era: 1900 Vintage

A monkey wreaks havoc on a doctor.

"Nothing new, but an old thing done over again and done well. Some one has attempted to describe a kiss as "something made of nothing," but this is not one of that kind, but one of those old fashioned "home made" kind that sets the whole audience into merriment and motion, and has always proven a popular subject. It is very fine photographically and an exhibit is not complete without it." -Edison film catalog.

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

The titles tell us this film is based on an incident in the Boxer Rebellion. A man tries to defend a woman and a large house against Chinese attackers. They attack with swords, guns, and paddles. He's over-matched. What will become of the mission, its defenders, and its occupants?

With a crowded arena in the background, a stationary camera records a bull charging a picador astride his horse. An attendant on foot throws stones at the rump of the horse to get it to move. Various toreadors run past the bull to try to get him to charge or at least run about.

An astronomer has a terrifying dream.

Shots of the panorama, filmed from the winding railroad tracks that stretch along the coast, from Beaulieu to Monaco, including tunnel passages.

A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.

Filming of a character sketch by the well-known vaudevillian Charles E. Grapewin. On a bare stage backed by a dark curtain, a man dressed in a three-piece suit and overcoat holds a racing program and excitedly watches a race supposedly taking place offstage.

Elaborate floats and costumes parading the streets of Nice.

The entire story of Christmastide is here depicted. The scene opens in a large boudoir of an apparently wealthy man's home. His children, assisted by their governess, are about to retire. Before lying down they hang up their stockings on the edge of the bed. The picture changes and night appears. We see the housetops of the town and angels are flying about depositing packages in each of the chimneys. (Edison Catalog)

George Footit & Rafael Patodos starts fighting.

Shots of the panorama, filmed from the winding railroad tracks that stretch along the coast, from Beaulieu to Monaco, including tunnel passages.

The film is a panorama shot-scene lasting just under a minute. The panorama film, as coined by Lumière, is a moving-camera shot--usually accomplished by placing the camera on a moving transport, such as a boat or train.

A dancer personifying Winter, dances in the snow. "L'Hiver: Danse de la neige" is the fourth and last film of the series DANSE DES SAISONS. "Le Printemps: Danse des roses", "L'Eté: Danse de la moisson" and "L'Automne: Danse des vendanges" are lost or unlocated.

"Les Fredaines de Pierrette" is the collective name of four short films of 20 meters each ("Arrivée de Pierrette et de Pierrot", "Arrivée d'Arlequin", "Suite de la danse", and "Départ d'Arlequin et de Pierrette"), attributed to Alice Guy (although not confirmed in any primary source), in which Columbine resists Pierrette's courting in favor of Harlequin. From July 1901, the series were made available hand-colored.

Shots of the panorama, filmed from the winding railroad tracks that stretch along the coast, from Beaulieu to Monaco, including tunnel passages.

A child borrows his grandmother's magnifying glass to look at a newspaper ad for Bovril, at a watch, and then at a bird. The child shows grandma what he is doing. The child looks next at grandma's eye, then at a kitten.

Scenes on an ostrich farm, filmed in Natal during the Boer War.

A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.

Uncle Josh checks into a hotel, presumably to get a better nights rest than he gets at home. Of course the way bad luck follows Josh around we know this is a forlorn hope. Sure enough, quicker than you can say "Georges Méliès" a ghost pops up to make sure Uncle Josh is denied a good nights rest.

Sherlock Holmes enters his drawing room to find it being burgled, but on confronting the villain is surprised when the latter disappears.

Kathryn Osterman, the well-known vaudeville comedienne, in a complete exposition of the methods of "making-up" the face for the stage. She shows the penciling of the eye-brows, blackening the eye lashes, rouging the lips, applying the grease paint and so forth. The work is done in a very dainty and interesting way. Only the head and shoulders of the subject are shown; the figure thus being very large. (AMB Picture Catalogue, 1902)

George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)

Scene from the second act of The Prince of Wales Theatre production.

While our photographers were crossing the Atlantic Ocean a most wonderful and sensational picture was secured, showing a storm at sea. The picture was secured by lashing the camera to the after bridge of the Kaiserine Maria Theresa, of the North German Lloyd Line, during one of its roughest voyages. The most wonderful storm picture ever photographed. Taken at great risk. (Edison Films, 1901)

A man takes off his clothes in preparation for bed, only for new clothes to spontaneously generate, leading to comical consternation.

The scene is a railroad track on the side of a steep mountain, with a tunnel in the background, toward which a train is running at a high rate of speed. At this instant the audience is appalled at the sight of a second train rushing out of the tunnel. Both trains are on the same track and traveling toward each other at a high rate of speed. They collide. Cars and engines are smashed into fragments and thrown down the steep incline. (Edison Catalog)

A woman climbs out of bed and lifts her nightdress to search for a flea. Reconstructed from a late 1800s flip book

Showing the attacking forces drawn up in line of battle. They immediately commence firing on the shore batteries. The batteries return the fire with telling effect, but are at last silenced by the overwhelming forces of the enemy. In the distance can be seen the ruins of a bridge destroyed by the invading forces. The smoke thickens as the firing becomes general, and the effect is superb.

A man misses his train due to his clothes turning into other types of clothes.

The 1900 Paris World's Fair as seen from Trocadéro.

This 10 second fragment is available in flipbook format, otherwise lost.

The picture opens with the Sultan lying down to rest on his luxurious cushioned couch. The scene changes to the grounds around the palace.

The professor shows his power to Mephisto by mysteriously placing a young lady in a swing. Mephisto then shows his power by making the young lady disappear from the swing, to the surprise of the professor. The professor makes another mystic pass and produces a second young lady then in the swing, and also a skeleton.

Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosure, and despite the title, does not actually feature a web.

“A marvelously clear picture taken from the top of the elevator of the Eiffel Tower during going up and coming down of the car. This wonderful tower is 1,000 feet in height, and the picture produces a most sensational effect. As the camera leaves the ground and rises to the top of the tower, the enormous white city opens out to the view of the astonished spectator. Arriving at the top of the tower, a bird's eye view of the Exposition looking toward the Trocadero, and also toward the Palace of Electricity, is made, and the camera begins its descent. The entire trip is shown on a 200-foot film. 30.00. We furnish the ascent in 125 foot film.” (Edison film catalog)

Poor Uncle Josh is trying to get to sleep, but being constantly bedevilled by a fellow in red long underwear with horns. A short early trick editing film using a stationary camera much more valuable for its historical, rather than entertainment value.

A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other. The director of this film is not credited in any contemporary catalogues or trade publications, or attributed to anyone by scholars or primary sources, however Alice Guy-Blaché is the most probable candidate.

Woman dances with fan

A man and a child are washing a small dog in a tub, while a large dog is circling around them, barking.

Excursions in the mountains of a group of riders.

A series of fantastical wrestling matches.

Possibly the first film to utilize the technique of focus pulling. A man kisses a beautiful and lively woman, then the image blurs and dissolves into a clear image of the man waking up to his nagging wife.

Characters from a large magic book come to life.

The scene takes place in a fashionable cafe. A well dressed couple enter, and after a careful perusal of the menu, conclude on an order of boiled eggs and Welsh rarebit.

A landlady is taunted by neighborhood kids.

The movie consists solely of a saber fight. Bernhardt plays a cross-gender Hamlet, and Pierre Magnier is her fellow duelist, Laertes. A few bystanders, in Rennaissance dress, stand off to the right of the screen, and in the background, next to a painted backdrop.

A girl in a Sevillian dress dances to the sound of music played a couple of men at the "Féria Sevillanos" [sic] during the Exposition Universelle de Paris - though she does not look a real Sevillian dancer.

This picture shows an old gentleman seated at his shaving table. The razor is evidently giving him a great deal of trouble...

A turn-of-the-last-century hand-tinted short, which features two women, Miss Lally and Miss Julyett, dancing at a ball. By the legendary French filmmaker Alice Guy (attributed only, but not confirmed in any primary sources).

An old lady is seated at a table with her work basket and her cat washing its paws beside her. The old lady makes several attempts to thread a needle and a look of triumph appears on her face as she finally succeeds.

White’s camera offers several 360-degree pans of views of the fairground, then amazes by tilting up and down the Eiffel Tower, and concludes with a stunning tracking shot to the highest point above Paris. Exhibitors freely grouped films into nascent narratives such as those displayed here. - Bruce Posner

A film in which limbless Nikolai Kobelkoff demonstrates a series of tasks, from aiming a pistol to performing gymnastics. Kobelkoff was born without arms and legs but persevered, becoming an international star in the early 20th century as a "Human Torso".

"The Bath" is a flip book remake of After the Ball (Après le Bal) made in the late 1800s.

A prince gets the help of a fairy to aid in his conflict with a wizard.

"This funny individual will make you laugh until your sides ache. He is funny in all his actions, yet when he puts on his shoes you can imagine the noise he can make when he dances an ordinary clog. The shoes referred to are made of some elastic material which enables Little Tich to bow almost to the floor without bending his legs, the spring in the shoes carrying him down and up again. He places his hat on the floor and, leaning over on the toes of his wonderful shoes, dips his head into the hat and comes up without having to move from the spot or to bend his legs. He is a comical looking sight at best, being made up to suit the part, and he will make you laugh whether you want to or not."