All Films

The Christmas Dream

1900 • 4 min • France

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)

Eight Girls in a Barrel

1900 • 1 min • France

A magician stuffs eight of his lovely assistants into a barrel.

The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match

1900 • 2 min • France

A series of fantastical wrestling matches.

Let Me Dream Again

1900 • 1 min • United Kingdom

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.

Attack on a China Mission

1900 • 1 min • United Kingdom

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?

The Flea

1900 • 1 min

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

Vue prise d'une baleinière en marche

1900 • 1 min • France

Sailors row a whaling boat in a medium-tight shot.

At the Photographer's

1900 • 1 min • France

A client has trouble listening to the photographer's instructions.

As Seen Through a Telescope

1900 • 1 min • United Kingdom

An elderly gentleman in a silk hat sits on a stool in front of a store on the main street of town. He has a telescope that focuses on the ankle of a young woman who is a short distance away. Her husband catches the gent looking. What will the two men do now?

Going to Bed Under Difficulties

1900 • 2 min • France

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

The Bath

1900 • 1 min

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

Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance

1900 • 1 min • France

A dancer personifying Winter, dances in the snow.

Grandma and the Bad Boys

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

Two bad boys enter the kitchen. One climbs to the kitchen table and takes down the old lamp, the other goes to the flour barrel and scoops out some flour, pouring it into the chimney until it is filled to the top. The lamp is then replaced in the bracket. Grandma enters, scratches a match, removes the lamp chimney, when the flour falls upon her head. It sticks in her hair and fills her eyes, but this is where she turns the tables.

Panoramic View of the Champs Elysees

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

Filmed in July 1900, on the Champs Elysées in Paris, France.

Little Tich and His Funny Feet

1900 • 1 min • France

"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."

Hooligan Assists the Magician

1900 • 2 min • United States of America

This is a new adventure in which our friend, Mr. Hooligan, appears in an entirely new capacity. On a stage a professor of magic is performing some wonderful experiments, and when he requests some assistance Happy Hooligan immediately volunteers his services and climbs upon the platform.

Joan of Arc

1900 • 11 min • France

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

Shanghai Street Scene No. 2

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

Here is another view on the Bund, with The Garden on the left, with its high arched conservatory. As in the former scene, the peculiar wheelbarrows prove to be the central attraction. Evidently some tourists are enjoying the novel vehicle, as shown by the hilarity of the party that passes by in front of our artists. A barrow is often loaded with three or four passengers, although but one man propels it.

Panoramic View of the Place de la Concorde

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

Taken from an automobile. This picture was taken during the fashionable driving hour, making a complete circle of the Place de la Concorde, passing hundreds of carriages and busses. The beginning of the picture shows the historical church of the Madeleine in the background, the picture ending by approaching and running under the main entrance to the Paris Exposition.

New Black Diamond Express

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

A crew of railroad workmen are busy along the tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. When the Black Diamond Express appears in the distance, they begin to pull back from the rails to clear the way. As the train approaches their work site, some of them begin to wave at it.

The Enchanted Drawing

1900 • 2 min • United States of America

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

Capture of Boer Battery by British

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

Turn-of-the-Century Surgery

1900 • 2 min • France

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/)

A Storm at Sea

1900 • 1 min • United States of America

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)