שָׁנָה 1896

They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.

“The watchful father disturbs a dream of bliss, and the bucolic lover is taught a lesson. He made a great hit.” (Edison film catalog)

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. This film is lost or never existed. Copies of it online are actually the 1900 remake.

In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.

A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.

A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed, and a battle ensues in hilarious comic fashion.

Auguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.

A butcher puts a full-grown live pig into his large box-like machine. Moments later, he draws out a full range of pork products, many already packaged for sale.

Strong-man Eugene Sandow flexes his muscles and strikes a few poses in front of a black background. This was a short film shot by William K.L. Dickson for the American Mutoscope Company and is not the 1894 Edison film shot at the Black Maria.

Félicien Trewey, performing his spinning plates routine.

Three friends are playing cards in a beer garden. One of them orders drinks. The waitress comes back with a bottle of wine and three glasses on a tray. The man serves his friends. They clink glasses and drink. Then the man asks for a newspaper. He reads a funny story in it and the three friends burst out laughing while the waitress merely smiles.

A Berlin street scene.

A fellow in a wide-brimmed hat, with a willowy stick for a rod and a baited hook, sits down on a plank hanging over a bridge above a stream. He sticks the rod under his seat and picks up his bottle to take a swig. Behind him creeps a joker who removes the large flagstone that's holding the fisherman's plank in place.

A mother takes her children for a walk, lifts her baby girl out of the buggy and gently sets her down to the ground. She then moves a few steps away and calls her name, to demonstrate that her baby can walk.

Three men are sitting around a table, two of them playing a game of Écarté. When the game is over, a domestic serves drinks.