All Films

In a Bamboo Hut

1905 • 3 min • France

Alice Guy experiment with visuals and sound by Félix Mayol.

Les apaches de Paris

1905 • 11 min

Rendez-vous of Apaches. Bonneteur and pickpocket. Theft at the scramble. Reticle shooter. Shoplifting. Pepper stripper. The coup of Father François. Murderous burglars. The cellar of Les Halles. The roundup.

A Pipe Dream

1905 • 1 min • United States of America

A little man appears out of the smoke.

The Miller’s Daughter

1905 • 13 min • United States of America

Hazel, the miller's daughter, is courted by a country boy and a sophisticated city boy. Her father favors the country boy, but she elopes with the city boy. Before they can marry, his wife shows up and stops the ceremony. Hazel tries to return to her father, but he has disowned her. She jumps into the river, but is rescued by the country boy, who later marries her.

Vendetta!!

1905 • 7 min • France

Two men get into a knife fight, in a Corsican tavern, and one of them kills another and escapes. He takes refuge in his house but escapes when the guard arrives, starting a persecution to the death.

Loïe Fuller

1905 • 2 min • France

This is another short, simple dance number. It’s quite stunning and unusual though with a bat turning into a woman who proceeds to give us a skirt dance before disappearing into thin air. The dance is mesmerising with the skirt stunningly changing colour throughout the film.

Clown, Dog and Balloon

1905 • 1 min • France

Cute one-trick doggie show. The backdrop is beautifully detailed, yet the illusion of depth is humorously broken by the balloon bouncing off the set.

Rescued by Rover

1905 • 7 min • United Kingdom

A dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.

The Night Before Christmas

1905 • 9 min • United States of America

On Christmas Eve, Santa feeds his reindeer and loads his sleigh, before going on his journey to deliver toys to the children of the world.

The Train Wreckers

1905 • 11 min • United States of America

A romance between a railroad engineer and the switchman's daughter is nearly ruined by train wreckers who knock out the girl and leave her on the tracks to be run over. The engineer perches on the engine's cow catcher and rescues the girl.

The Regret

1905 • 2 min • France

A man kills a wealthy miser - frugal fellow, I like to think - and buries his corpse under a haystack. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim....or is it his own conscience?

Cook & Rilly's Trained Rooster

1905 • 2 min • France

An early sound-synchronized short of a rooster crowing.

Félix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka"

1905 • 2 min • France

Félix Mayol performs The Trottins Polka (La Polka des Trottins, by A. Trebitsch and H. Christine) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Mayol, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.

The Malagueña and the Bullfighter

1905 • 2 min • France

A bullfighter dances with a woman.

New York Subway

1905 • 5 min • United States of America

The camera platform was on the front of a New York subway train following another train on the same track. Lighting is provided by a specially constructed work car on a parallel track. At the time of filming, the subway was only seven months old, having opened on October 27, 1904. The ride begins at 14th Street (Union Square) following the route of today's east side IRT, and ends at the old Grand Central Station, built by Cornelius Vanderbuilt in 1869. The Grand Central Station in use today was not completed until 1913.

The Fantastic Diver

1905 • 4 min • France

In this remake of Ferdinand Zecca's "Plongeur fantastique" (The Fantastic Plunger, 1901), Segundo de Chomón shows a diver with reverse motion editing for a curious effect.

Esmeralda

1905 • 10 min • France

It was the first film version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Marvellous Reversing

1905 • 2 min • France

A trick film using the reverse effect.

Polin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee"

1905 • 2 min • France

Polin performs a song.

A Victim of Misfortune

1905 • 4 min • United Kingdom

Painter pursued by policeman, laundress, milkman, etc.

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

1905 • 12 min • United States of America

The millionaire's child is kidnapped. Sherlock Holmes after many thrilling adventures and narrow escapes rescues the child.

Tango

1905 • 2 min • France

A woman performs the tango.

Félix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions"

1905 • 2 min • France

Felix Mayol performs a song, in colour.

The Nihilist

1905 • 11 min • United States of America

A happy Russian family is broken up when their patriarch is arrested for treason. His distraught wife joins the secret society of nihilists and is assigned to commit an act of terror. Based on the play "Vera; or, The Nihilists" by Oscar Wilde.