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Films from the 1900s
The best 100 of 583
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A Trip to the Moon
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the
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Fantasmagorie
An animated film by French auteur Émile Cohl, one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn film animation. Drawing inspiration from J. Stuart Blackton and the Incoherents of club Hydropathes, the film, with all its wild transformations, sees our protagonist materialize a movie theatre, meet an elephant and escape from jail; A morphing, stream-of-consciousness delight.
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The Diabolic Tenant
A man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.
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The Flying Train
The Flying Train depicts a ride on a suspended railway. The footage is almost as impressive as the feat of engineering it captures. For many years our curators believed our Mutoscope rolls were slightly shrunken 70mm film, but they were actually shot on Biograph’s proprietary 68mm stock. Formats like Biograph’s 68mm and Fox’s 70mm Grandeur are of particular interest to researchers visiting the Film Study Center because the large image area affords stunning visual clarity and quality, especially compared to the more standard 35mm or 16mm stocks.
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The Bewitched House
A group of travellers go into a house for protection. Little do they know, it is filled with ghosts who make unusual things happen to them.
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The Melomaniac
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
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The '?' Motorist
A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.
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Modern Sculptors
The first scene presents before the astonished eyes of the spectators a solid piece of marble, which the minute it is placed on a table seems to take life, and one can follow a snake-like line branding on the polished face of the stone the name of the house of Pathé Frères. As soon as this stone has been engraved, as by magic, a handsome young lady appears with a huge lump of clay covered with a cloth. As soon as the cloth is removed from the soft mass it starts whirling and turning as if stricken mad, and one is asking one's self what all the contentions are going to lead to, when the vague shape of an animal not yet discernible seems to appear, and before one has time to make one's mind as to the category of brutes to which it belongs one sees the form of a remarkably well made orang-utan modelled out of the clay, who calmly smokes his pipe. Then the statue is removed by the same winni
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Drama at the Puppets' House
For a short comedy of rare merit this subject is unexcelled. A chalk line series of grotesque caricatures enacted in the land of puppets. A fickle maiden gets herself into numerous embarrassing complications with her host of admirers, but the artist with lightning rapidity overcomes all obstacles and brings the maiden out victorious.
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The Enchanted Drawing
A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.
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Panorama of the Paris Exposition, from the Seine
This panoramic scene is taken from a Seine steamboat and gives a rapid view of the banks of the river...
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A Visit to the Seaside
The first successful motion picture in natural color, filmed with Kinemacolor. It is an 8 minute short film directed by George Albert Smith of Brighton, showing people doing everyday activities. It is ranked of high historical importance. Kinemacolor later influenced and replaced by Technicolor, which was used from 1916 to 1952.
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The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper
Dog Rover, from Rescued by Rover fame, chases a kidnapper's car and while he is in a pub, drives it safely home and thus saves the baby.
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Sweet Dreams Intermingled With Nightmares
A woman falls asleep on a park bench. The Devil appears and summons an imp who takes the woman to his fantastic lair. After a nightmarish episode, the woman awakens only to promptly doze off again. Now a fairy appears who shows the woman a beautiful dreamland.
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Messrs Lumb and Co Leaving the Works, Huddersfield
Yet another factory gate exit film from Mitchell and Kenyon.
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Elastic Transformation
A woman enters a room with a man. She creates a duplicate of him and changes his personality by throwing his clothes from one man to the next.
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The Magic Hoop
Émile Cohl mixes live-action and stop-motion animation in this charming evocation of the power of imagination. A magician shapes his cane into a hoop with strange properties for a young girl. Costume changes and city promenades give way towards greater abstraction as the film becomes absorbed by what goes on inside the ring.
- 19
The Little Match Seller
A short melodrama based on Hans Christian Andersen's harrowing tale. A poor little girl tries to sell matchsticks in the freezing December cold. She lights matches for some light and warmth. There are visions: a fireplace, dinner, a Christmas tree. She sees her dead mother, welcoming her.
- 20
Tram Ride Into Halifax
A breathtaking winter journey in the Pennines, from country to town and back again via electric tram.
- 21
The Girl from Arles
The young hero, Frederick, is leaving his country home and going to the city to attend the bull fight, and while there he meets and woos a beautiful maiden, forgetting his own little sweetheart at home.
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Métempsycose
In turn, the statues come to life, dancers like dolls, perform on a table, the women metamorphose from butterflies, and babies are born from giant flowers. These scenes are a series of tableaux which are beautifully incoherent, changing and diverse as in real life, where it is necessary to have a certain belief in metaphysics for the soul to be transported into a perpetual motion, migrating from one another and into the stars.
- 23
The Strike
During a strike, several workers are killed in a confrontation. The wife of one of them kills the factory owner. At her trial, the owner's son asks for mercy, knowing that his father was wrong. Because of that the wife is freed.
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Drama in the Air
A fairly venturesome piece of filmmaking for the era: Based on the Jules Verne story, the film utilizes a dozen cuts, irised lenses, panning shots and vivid tints to weave an intrepid and exciting story.
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The Bewitched Shepherd
A young peasant leaves his cottage after a quarrel with his wife, and meets a witch. She takes him to a cavern, where after a series of encounters with goblins and other elusive creatures, he is presented with a choice of beautiful women of various races. Finally the witch makes his wife appear.
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Living Wigan
A lively crowd surround the camera filming a tram leaving Wigan Market Place.
- 27
Morecambe Church Lads' Brigade at Drill
Larking about during Church Lads' Brigade drill and parade in Morecambe.
- 28
Magic Dice
This is not only a colored film of great beauty, but one showing a series of clever trick pictures in which great ingenuity on the part of the operator is exhibited.
- 29
A Father's Honor
A young woman receives a message, and hurriedly leaves home. But the message was a trick to lure her into a trap, where she is assaulted and killed. When her body is found floating in the river, it is brought to her father. Once he realizes what has been done to his daughter, the father immediately sets out in an effort to extract vengeance.
- 30
The Age of the Heart
An old general is married to a young woman. She meets a young man and makes plans for a rendezvous. The general receives an anonymous letter about his wife which causes him to find the couple and seek vengeance.
- 31
Whitsuntide Fair at Preston
All the fun of the Whitsuntide Fair in Edwardian Preston.
- 32
Le Chemineau
An adaptation of an episode in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, where Jean Valjean is welcomed into the Bishop of Digne's home, and steals his silverware.
- 33
Living Flowers
Gaston Velle's 'Les Fleurs Animées' was screened by the Australian-based Corrick Family Entertainers as part of their variety act. In their advertising the Corricks described the detailed, hand-coloured production as 'The finest "Color" Film of the Twentieth Century'. Simple camera tricks create a magic fairy story in this tale of angry flowers exacting revenge on a man who has wantonly destroyed their garden.
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Voyage autour d’une étoile
An old astronomer has been transfixed by a star for a long time. He had but one thought: to travel to it, to declare his love for it! But how? A simple but ingenious solution-- A giant bubble. Velle remade the film for Italian studio Cines in the same year.
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Electric Tram Rides from Forster Square, Bradford
An epic tour of the places and people of Edwardian Bradford.
- 38
The Tulips
In a bower of giant tulips a boy and girl practice flower magic. They cause flowers and birds to open and human forms to issue therefrom, and on the black background of the wonderful garden there appear myriad flowers, in the center of each of which is a smiling feminine head. Tableaux showing pretty girl and flower effects are plentiful and the film winds up with a burst of multi-colored flame, which shoots in fiery splendor from leaves and petals.
- 39
Poor Mother
A woman loses her only child. She turns to drink and begins to hallucinate an image of her beloved child.
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Sheffield United v Bury
Sparkling images of fans and players at an Edwardian fixture at Sheffield's Bramall Lane.
- 42
Audley Range School, Blackburn
Lancashire children perform physical education exercises in (almost) perfect unison.
- 43
A Holiday Pageant at Home
A few days before the Christmas holiday, a large family decides to put on a home-made play as part of their holiday together. The mother writes the play, and the children practice it. When they are ready, they enact first a prologue and then the play.
- 44
Whimsical People
A moon-woman shakes a Pierot costume and manifests a Pierot clown. She does this four more until there are five Pierots crowded on the ledge of the moon. They fall to the earth and dance like tops turning one by one into Columbine maidens.
- 45
William Tell
Historical legend composed of five Scenes. 1. William Tell's heroism. 2. The Plot. 3. The Apple. 4. Death of Gessler. 5. The Swiss cheer their Liberator. This popular and interesting legend takes place amidst the country life of the mountain populations. The beautiful and picturesque sites which exist in Switzerland have given us an opportunity of utilising the resources our theatre affords, and our scene-painters have been able to have a free run on their imaginations, and have completed the work by a series of magnificent scenes in the most artistic character.
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The Seven Ages
A couple who have known each other all of their lives are shown together at different stages of life. First, as children, they play together affectionately. Soon afterwards, they are at school together, and as they grow older, they become lovers. Later on, their relationship and their lives move on to more important matters.
- 48
The Physician of the Castle
Two criminals lure a doctor away from his home with a phony note about a child's illness. After the doctor rushes off, the criminals break into his house and menace his wife and child. By the time the doctor realizes what has happened, his family faces a desperate situation.
- 49
University Procession on Degree Day, Birmingham
Female graduates and gents sporting spectacular Edwardian whiskers take part in Birmingham’s first Degree Day ceremony.
- 50
The Cigar Box
People magically appear and disappear from an oversized musical cigar dispenser.
- 51
Magnetized Man
A midsummer Phantasy. The man having been attacked by footpads, puts on a suit of medieval armor which has been magnetized at a dynamo by two boys. Every metallic article which he approaches flies to him, to the great consternation of many people.
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Alfred Butterworth and Sons, Glebe Mills, Hollinwood
A flood of Lancashire cotton workers and their children at the end of another shift.
- 54
The Skipping Cheese
The interior of a trolley car. A menagerie of passengers notices a foul odour, and pinpoint the source of the stench at a cheese saleswoman. The gendarmerie removes her from the trolley and drags her to the precinct.
- 55
Spanish Clair de Lune
Two lovers perform a fandango dance. A jealous quarrel follows and the heart-broken swain decides to end it all. He throws himself from the window of his room, but instead of falling to his death, the anchor of a passing balloon intercepts his flight and he is taken high into the clouds. Laughing at his plight, the moon arouses the anger of the desperate lover and a battle between the two ensues.
- 56
Manchester Street Scene
A rare glimpse of early Edwardian Manchester when the horse-drawn tram still reigned supreme.
- 57
Enchanted Glasses
Devilish looking man dances with a dress in his arms. The dress stands up by itself and a woman magician appears in it. She conjures six women and then makes them disappear. She magically changes into men's clothing and lines up six boxes which begin to smoke and produce six women, whose clothing transforms from formal gowns to ballet dresses. The magician makes them disappear. She then lines up six glasses on a table, and, as she pours wine into them, a woman appears in each glass. She makes the wine go back into the container and everything on the table goes up in smoke. She transforms her clothing into a dress, then disappears, leaving the dress standing on its own. The devilish man reappears, turns the dress into torches, then disappears into smoke with the torches. (Library of Congress)
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Burnley v Manchester United
Believed to be the first film that features Manchester United in their first season as 'Manchester United', rather than 'Newton Heath' as they were known at the time.
- 60
Manchester Band of Hope Procession
A temperance society decries the demon drink on the streets of Edwardian Manchester.
- 61
Diabolical Pickpocket
A pickpocket manages to escape the police through a series of fantastic tricks. The director in this film is unknown.
- 62
The Yawner
A top-hatted man gets dressed in the morning, and starts to yawn, causing his housekeeper to yawn as well. He sets off down the street where he proceeds to make others yawn as well, including a shop keeper, passers-by, and a small group of soldiers.
- 63
The Wrestler's Wife
A story of a desperate wife who worries about her husband, a career wrestler.
- 64
The Indian Sorcerer
A sorcerer turns a small egg into a bigger one and keeps repeating this trick until the egg is large enough to do other things including delivering children.
- 65
The Pumpkin Race
A pumpkin vendor returns with her loaded car. Two pranksters overturn the car, and what follows is a truly hilarious and eventful pumpkin hunt. (Nouveautés Cinématographiques, February 3, 1908)
- 66
How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
An office boy plays hooky from work so he can watch a ballgame perched high atop a telephone pole. Includes footage of an actual baseball game as if seen through a telescope.
- 67
Four-Year-Old Heroine
A little girl runs away from the maid in charge of her care and, during her escapade, she will arrest two thugs, prevent a blind man from drowning, and save some drunks from being run over by a train. According to Etienne Arnaud's own notes, he filmed this short on the 18th and 19th of July, 1907. Alice Guy, who is mistakenly attributed to have directed it, had been living in the United States long before those dates.
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The Boutdebois Brothers
Prodigious feats of strength by two little wooden men who leave the most sophisticated puppets far behind.
- 69
The Colonel's Account
This short film consists of a crazy old colonel being asked to entertain party guests about his exploits of daring. However, being a totally insane old coot, he runs amok acting out his war-time heroics--smashing and throwing everything in the room!
- 70
Tapping a Furnace
A large bucket is lowered into a pit by male workers using machinery. Molten material from a furnace is poured into the bucket using a slide. The bucket, which has flames coming from inside, is lifted up from the pit by a crane.
- 71
The Bee and the Rose
The Queen Bee and her entourage appear dancing around the hive. Suddenly, a splendid rose rises in a bed of flowers, comes to life and flies off with the Queen Bee. Then the Queen of Roses returns to her original state. The Queen Bee is saddened by the loss of her beautiful companion and, after inhaling the fragrance of the roses, falls asleep. A spider spins its web over her and traps her, but a swarm of bees quickly arrives and frees their Queen. The final scene is a graceful ballet featuring charming ballerinas portraying roses and bees.
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The Sculptor's Dream
The artist studio is decorated with a rug, a chaise lounge, a small table, a plinth, a couple of copies of classic sculptures, a vase with flowers, a few prints on the walls, and on the wood paneled lower half of the wall, an 8-pointed star [Saturn-Film's logo]. The artist is wearing a white shirt over his grey trousers, shirt and necktie, and he is wearing black shoes. With hammer and chisel, he applies the last touches on his last piece of sculpture - The Three Graces, standing nude on a rectangular podium covered with a white bed-shirt. He steps back, contemplates his work, and rejoices on the beauty he has achieved. He goes out momentarily, and brings a bottle of champagne and a glass; before drinking, he makes a toast to his finished statue. He drinks, smokes a cigarette, and contemplates his work - until he falls asleep on the chaise lounge. Only then do The Three Graces stir, and
- 74
The Rajah's Casket
An evil magician visits the rajah's palace to perform his magic tricks, but he also steals a valuable casket making his getaway aboard a dragon. The rajah pursues the wizard to a subterranean cavern.
- 75
Affairs of the Heart
A near-abstract animation telling a simple romantic story through drawings almost entirely composed of heart shapes.
- 76
Le Coucher de la mariée
On their wedding night, the newlyweds are ready to go to bed with the ceremony of taking off their clothes, the bride, and the groom wanting to see what he has not seen yet.
- 77
La creación del himno
The story of Vicente López y Planes writing the national anthem of Argentina.
- 78
The Vacuum Cleaner
In this funny picture we see the vacuum cleaner, the modern dust eradicator, performing some very droll tricks. As soon as the fellow turns on the air then the fun begins. It is all accomplished through some clever trick photography. First we see two attendants start out to do a cleaning job, and while they stop to take some refreshments, two men, who happen to be passing, take the machine and start down the sheet to have some fun. They meet a woman with a dog on a leash, and at a turn of the wheel, the dog and its mistress are quickly drawn into the spout. Next a nursemaid comes sauntering down the street, and when they level the spout at her she meets the same fate. A girl and her lover are the next to disappear off the face of the earth, and still they go along, looking for more victims. (Moving Picture World)
- 79
Beginning of the Serpentine Dance
In a living room, four contemporary couples from the time the film was shot dance a waltz under the direction of a violinist (Linder). They begin a minuet and their costumes change in a sudden. A man enters and seems interested in what he sees, casts a spell and everything disappears. Transforming himself into the devil, the visitor takes the violinist with him to hell, where he creates a large piece of silk out of a cauldron. The fabric unrolls, revealing a young woman in a silk dress that starts dancing the serpentine. While she dances, other women join in a synchronized ballet, before all of them vanish into bursts of flames.
- 80
The Policemen's Little Run
A policeman spots a dog stealing a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, and gives chase. Soon several more policemen have joined the pursuit. But the chase does not turn out as the policemen expect.
- 81
The May Revolution
La Revolución de Mayo (in English: May Revolution) is an Argentine silent movie premiered in 1909. As the name denotes, it is focused on the events of the May Revolution. It was directed by Mario Gallo, and it was the first Argentine film with a plot.
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Panorama Exterior Westinghouse Works
The view from a moving train shows some of the Westinghouse interests and the surrounding areas.
- 83
Why That Actor Was Late
An actor tries to get to a show on time. Many mishaps along the way.
- 84
The Icelandic Althing Visits Copenhagen
Long winded film runs just over six-minutes but we're pretty much shown Iceland's Parliament as they board a ship and are given a reception by the Danish crown.
- 85
Rogues' Tricks
Fun film from French master Georges Melies has a couple burglar's breaking into a man's home and having to hide when that man returns. Instead of a trick film or something that he's known for, the director really changes gears here and instead delivers what's basically an action movie.
- 86
Soap Bubbles
A magician blows some big bubbles and makes heads of women appear inside them.
- 87
Love's Surprises
A man, his wife and their two sons are having a meal. One of the sons leaves the room pretending to be ill and collects a bunch of flowers form a cupboard and goes out. The other son takes a bunch of flowers from under his bed and he too leaves, followed by their father, also carrying flowers. The two sons and their father call on the same young women one after the other; as each arrives, the previous suitor is hidden in a piece of furniture: the father under a chair cover, one son in a cupboard and the other in a piano. A girlfriend of the young woman visits and the two play pranks on the hiding men by playing the piano and sitting on the chair cover. The three men emerge and the father chases his two sons outside until they remind him of his own folly; he gives his sons some money and urges them to keep silent.
- 88
The Miser
This Georges Melies film is only available in a five-minute fragment. The film starts off with a title card setting up the events. An elderly miser keep all of his money to himself and refuses to help people no matter what they might need. We see him turn away a few people and then portions of the film are missing and we pick up later in the story as the old man is scared of something (apparently someone stole his money).
- 89
The Genii of Fire
Not much of a plot. A couple is menaced by some sort of bizarre religious cult. Then they're saved.
- 90
His First Cigar
The film is quite sophisticated for it's time with a relatively large number of scene changes as we follow Max's misadventures. It also features a close-up shot to show his reactions to the effects of the cigar he is smoking.
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Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham
Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.
- 92
Welding the Big Ring
A group of men weld one area of a large ring in a fire. They lift the ring, which is hanging horizontally on chains, out of the fire. Four men hammer the hot area on the ring into shape while the remaining men hold the ring. They put the ring into the fire again, take it out, and take it over to a machine which continuously hammers down on that area of the ring. The men then take it away from the machine and hammer it themselves into shape. The ring is presumably a piece of a generator.
- 93
A Tricky Painter’s Fate
A painter boards a train and puts his paintings in the windows so that they look like passengers.
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A Day in the Hayfields
Documentary on the process of hay-making, from the cutting of the grass to the stacking of the hay.
- 96
Miners Leaving Pendlebury Colliery
A group of miners (including a sole black worker) exits the colliery gates.
- 97
The Stepmother
A poor boy is mistreated by his stepmother when his father isn't present.
- 98
Two Memories
Henry and Marion have a lover's quarrel and part in anger. They do not reconcile, and ten years pass without contact. Marion becomes a society girl and spends her time at parties with her friends. Henry has become very ill and wishes to see Marion one more time. He writes asking her to visit. When she recieves the note, she laughs and tosses it on the floor, but, later, on a whim, decides to take all her drunken friends with her to visit him. When they arrive, Marion finds Henry dead, clutching her portrait in his hand. She sends her friends away and falls to her knees in remorse. Mary Pickford's debut!
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Female Conscripts
A man in civil clothes, and three men in army uniforms are inspecting seven women to be recruited.
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Westinghouse Air Brake Co. (Moulding Scene)
Men working in teams carry buckets of molten material and pour the material into what appear to be molds lined up on the ground.