All Films

Laughing Gas

1907 • 8 min • United States of America

A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.

Wonderful Flames

1907 • 4 min • France

In an empty mansion's corridor, flames appear and form into a Mephistophelean magician who conjures a couple of women and then a fireworks display.

How Bridget's Lover Escaped

1907 • 8 min • France

Very much a slapstick chase in the mode of the period, as Victorine's boyfriend escapes from the kitchen and is pursued on rooftop by his unsuspecting fellow officers.

Street Scenes in Perth, Western Australia

1907 • 3 min • New Zealand

Leonard Corrick’s camera moves up and down the streets of Perth recording the action on the street. At one point a man bumps into another man in the street and fisticuffs ensue as the camera moves past.

The Good Luck of a 'Souse'

1907 • 3 min • France

This film from George Melies is sadly one that's only available in fragments. The film starts off with a title card stating that a drunk man has just thrown his family out a window. We see a couple of them landing on the ground and then we go back to the room where the drunk is now trying to kill himself.

The King and the Jester

1907 • 5 min • France

French short about King Francis I and his jester Triboulet, who form the basis for Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse (and Verdi's opera Rigoletto).

The Knight of Black Art

1907 • 6 min • France

Magic tricks in a medieval setting.

The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon

1907 • 9 min • France

In this film, Méliès concocts a combination fairy- and morality tale about the foolishness of trying to look too deeply into the workings of an unstable and inscrutable universe. At a medieval school, an old astronomer begins to teach a class of young men, all armed with telescopes, about the art of scrutinising an imminent eclipse. When a mechanical clock strikes twelve, all the young men rush to the windows and fix their telescopes on the heavens.

The Abduction of the Slave Women

1907 • 5 min • Austria

Four Arab men in white burnouses, two women in grey, and one female cook in striped burnous, are sitting in front of a cave in a forest path.

Delirium in a Studio

1907 • 5 min • France

The opening title card explains that a painter has just finished his work when his assistant comes in and accidentally drinks varnish. The film then picks up as the painter goes haywire and sends the assistant into the painting.

The Dancing Pig

1907 • 4 min • France

A pig dressed in fancy clothes flirts with a pretty girl, but she humiliates him and tears off his suit; she then makes him dance for her affections. It is a filmed version of a vaudeville act called "Le cochon mondain" by Odéo, who play the pig himself, in the suit he designed.

Sightseeing Through Whisky

1907 • 6 min • France

John, who loves the bottle a little too much, is one of a group of sightseers. Too drunk to follow the party, the reeling drunkard remains on the site of a ruin where he starts having hallucinations.

Four-Year-Old Heroine

1907 • 7 min • France

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.

Veil Dance

1907 • 1 min • Austria

Four nude girls prance about in a small clearing in a dense wood or green garden. Two stay coyly to the left, one dances in the front with a flowing, flimsy veil, and another, far right, mimics the dancer's movements.

The Merry Widow

1907 • 5 min • Sweden

Danilo invites Hanna Glawari and the two dance a pair of rollers from the operetta's second act. The photographer has waved quite quickly, so the movements are remarkably slow. At one point, both outside picture ends.

Our Band's Going to the Competition

1907 • 5 min • France

An inept marching band heads off to the competition, and then celebrates their surprising victory.

The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy

1907 • 13 min • United States of America

Dramatization of the real-life shooting of Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw.

Cohen’s Fire Sale

1907 • 13 min • United States of America

A shopkeeper suffers the loss of some valuable merchandise, and thinks of a way to regain his losses.

Jim's Apprenticeship

1907 • 11 min • France

Boireau's father keeps trying to apprentice him to a different trade. Each time, the youngster annoys the customers and destroys the goods and property.

Harlequin's Story

1907 • 8 min • France

Polichinelle the servant (called Harlequin in the English language version) rescues his girlfriend from a gang of decadent aristocrats, who have transformed her into a mechanical doll.

The Cigar Box

1907 • 4 min • France

People magically appear and disappear from an oversized musical cigar dispenser.

The Ascent of Mont Blanc

1907 • 14 min • France

Joseph Vallot and his team of guides and porters climb Mont Blanc in 1906. Their ascent will take three days. They spent their nights at the Grands Mulets refuge and the Grand Plateau refuge. This is the very first successfully filmed ascent. Joseph Vallot (1854-1925), rich heir of Lodève in Occitania. He devotes part of his fortune to the observation of the Alps, sometimes opposing the scientific community. He built an observatory, still standing today.

Easter Eggs

1907 • 3 min • France

A magical woman and her magical eggs.

The Race for the Sausage

1907 • 4 min • France

A dog runs away with a length of sausage. Chaos erupts as the butcher chasing the dog collides with bystanders who angrily follow.