Cinematic Era: 1905 Vintage

Short film dramatizing the riots in St. Petersburg in three scenes: Fanaticism and superstition, Demonstrators leaving, and Legal crime.

A man dancing at a party finds one of his socks has fallen down. Retreating where no one can see him, he removes the offending item. the consequences are not long in coming in this very short -- two minutes -- comedy from Alice Guy.

A workman flees from a lunatic who wishes to return a putty knife.

A magician produces a chicken from an immense egg, and then six chicks from eggs laid by that chicken. The chicken is wrapped in paper and put into a pot. The chicks go back into their eggs, which are broken into the pot. From the pot, the magician pulls out the chicken, alive!

At an island penal institution, new prisoners are brought in one-by-one, and introduced to the harsh realities of prison life. They are put in fetters, sent to perform hard physical labor, and treated brutally. One convict manages to cut through the bars on his cell window. He climbs out, steals a boat, and begins a desperate attempt to escape from the island.

Prince Carl alongside his wife Princess Maud leaves Denmark to become King Haakon of Norway on 23 November 1905.

Comedy about moving furniture.

A policeman has breakfast with his wife and children, and then prepares for the day's work. While on his beat, he finds and helps a lost child. Later, several officers try to save a woman who has attempted to drown herself. And there are some even more hazardous situations yet to come.

Stolen car and a police chase

A group of men with a broken down auto get an assist from a man who can’t walk.

It's the view out of a railroad car near the engine as it navigates among a choice of tracks and takes off through the countryside.

Russian soldiers demolish a synagogue and ill-treat the Jews.

Boss insists on pawing secretary. She teaches him a lesson.

Police try to catch acrobatic thieves who vanish at will.

An anarchist blows up the general who sent his wife to Siberia.

A workman places his paint can in an unfortunate spot.

A partially nude woman fixes and brushes her hair.

The film, of which only fragments are known to survive, features Méliès as a magician making playing-card figures come to life in miniature.

A mischievous errand boy, sent out on a delivery, causes havoc in the streets of Hove. When he arrives back at the shop, he finds all his furious victims are already there complaining to the grocer -- and the chase is on!

A boss has a dream in which he is tortured and tries to escape. Some women gently wake him up. France, 1905 Prod.: Pathé Frères (scène à trucs, n. 1297) 35mm. L.: 79 m. D.: 4’ a 16 f/s. Bn From: BFI National Archive

Man robbed of spectacles mistakes tramp for girl, etc.

A young schoolboy sneaks into his father's study while he is out. He discovers a deck of transparent cards and holds some of them up to the lamp, one at a time, and through each one he admires the most suggestive poses of a pretty socialite and witnesses all the charming surprises of a graceful woman's undress.

A low-rent traveling theater troupe performs a very bad version of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The theater manager steals the box office proceeds and the performers have to walk back to New York.

Images from the Nordic Games in 1905.

Charles Voisin conducted flight tests with his airplanes, which were equipped with floats, on the Seine River near Billancourt. These tests took place in 1905 and made Billancourt an early center for seaplane technology. Later models, such as the Voisin Hydro Canard, were also tested on the Seine and took part in seaplane gatherings.

Backward facing camera stunt story of a man coming out of the water.

The story of a group of counterfeiters, caught, and then escaping from prison.

For the last time the landlord calls upon the artist lodger for his rent and threatens to sell him up unless paid that day. No sooner has he gone than the artist begins to remove all his furniture by sliding it down a plank which he has placed across the window of his friends apartments just opposite. They help him over his difficulty and just as the last piece goes on, and the artist has safely followed it, the landlord arrives and also tries to cross the plank. Just as he is in the middle of it, they twist the plank and down he goes, falling on the head of a pastry cook, whom he proceeds to thrash for being in the way. Very laughable and highly recommended. (UK05)

A trip through Napels, ending at the Vesuvius -- the part that was also coloured in vulkanish red.

Early Balkan footage.

A man in black tie and tails enters a high-society parlor where a settee sits beneath an open window. He goes to the window and gestures to someone. From outside, a man in a burglar's outfit (watch cap, wide striped shirt, and dark jacket) appears and gets his instructions from the man in tails. A woman wearing a jeweled tiara enters with a second man who leaves her in the company of our mastermind. He sits her on the settee, chats her up, leaning toward her with one arm curling behind her head.

A bird buzzes around a mustached man interrupting his meal.

The Kaiser was an unpopular guest in Denmark. Both for personal and political reasons, the Danish court did not want to have too close ties to the German Kaiser. But the Kaiser had a habit of inviting himself.

A woman performs the tango.

Both father and son want to meet their respective romantic appointments, without the other one knowing. The film is currently considered lost.

Short film restored by Cineteca of Bologna on 2024

A respectable fellow has quietly taken a seat upon a bench in a park, and worn out from the excessive heat of the day, has fallen asleep. Two ramblers happen upon him and, seeing him an easy prey, chloroform him and proceed to rob him even to the extent of removing his clothes. The fellow under the influence of the drug has a pleasant dream while imagining himself surrounded by the houris of the seventh heaven of Mahomet. But he is quickly brought back to realize his actual situation by two policemen who, in the course of their rounds, have observed this man asleep in the park, only partly dressed. They lead him away to the station to the delight of the two thieves who, from afar, have watched his arrest. While they themselves follow with their eves the departure of their victim, a third thief sneaks up and snatches their booty which he successfully vets away with, The two prowlers accuse each other of the theft of the booty and come to most violent blows.

Four on-screen spectators serve as the viewer’s proxy at a running of the annual French championship steeplechase held at Paris’s Auteuil Hippodrome.

Shot in Yunnan, China, simply shows 2 men smoking.

This exquisitely coloured film features a series of models rotating slowly in front of the camera, allowing close-up views of their various hairstyles and exotic headdresses.

A train ride of New York.

Series of 14 chronophotographic short films held by the Cinémathèque française. Includes vol de la grosse mouche bleue (flight of the big blue fly), oft-misattributed to Marey as "Mosquinha".

A man stops to have his shoes polished by a young boy. A woman, passing by, has her garter slip to the ground. She replaces it, raising her skirt to do so; the boy is distracted.

A short early sound film of soldiers following the orders of their commander.

Mutiny on a Russian Battleship.

A young woman is abducted and forced to beg from passers-by.

A man is trying to shave, but grotesque faces keep appearing in his mirror.

A short documentary of mild curiosity value showing a group of Blackburn school children passing before the camera.

A panoramic shot of New York City's Pennsylvania Station during its construction, filmed 19 July 1905, includes narrow gauge railway action.

An early example of hand-colored sparkling light displays, by a filmmaker whose name has been lost to time.

British documentary short released in 1905.

Taken from the audience's point of view, the film shows a contortionist demonstrating that she can completely revolve her arms in the shoulder sockets. The exhibition was a waist-high front view, side view, and rear view. Freaky.

Being a complete pictorial account of the remarkable "Fête des Vignerons", at Vevey, Switzerland.

The earlist Chinese film with confirmed written record, a short film made by the government army, documenting the autumn army manoeuvres in October 1905.

Images from Children's Day 1905.

Kaisers Karusell in Kronberg

A woman offers a reward for her missing dog and a huge number of claimants shows up.

A ballerina dreams of dancing under the sea.

In Paris, freed by criminal hands, several barrels roll down an endless slope, dragging everything and everyone in their path.

1905 actuality film, director unknown, preserved by the Library of Congress. Also appears in Hollis Frampton's film, Public Domain. Cf. Woman with uncontrollable arm (also 1905).