Жыл 1899

A film from Méliès has him playing a magician who does a few tricks including making a woman disappear.

An actuality and reportage film. This film captures Lord Frederick Roberts (British Army rank Field Marshal) departing England for South Africa on 23rd December 1899, where he commanded British forces for a year in the Second Boer War. The ship in this film is the RMS Dunottar Castle. Going with Roberts is his chief of staff, Lord Kitchener, whose future role as Secretary Of State for War during World War One awaits him. This film was produced and distributed by the Warwick Trading Company, a London based company at its peak at this time, involved in the majority of British films.The Warwick Trading Company specialised in travel, reportage and actuality films and had substantial catalogues. Charles Urban had taken over as managing director in 1897 and was in that role when this film was produced. According to the BFI programme entry, the company had a large amount of resources already in South Africa. This meant they could capture historic moments as part of its Boer War coverage.

Produced and directed by George Albert Smith, the film shows a couple sharing a brief kiss as their train passes through a tunnel. The Kiss in the Tunnel is said to mark the beginnings of narrative editing. It is in fact, two films in one, hence the 2 min length. Firstly, the G.A. Smith film here for the central cheeky scene in the carriage. The train view footage however is Cecil Hepworth's work, entitled 'View From An Engine Front - Shilla Mill Tunnel', edited into two halves in order to provide a visual narrative of the train entering the tunnel before the kiss and then leaving afterwards. More information about the filming of the phantom train ride can be found searching for the Hepworth film separately.

A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out? Méliès based the art direction on engravings by Gustave Doré. First known example of a fairy-tale adapted to film, and the first film to use dissolves to go from one scene to another.

Carriages travel down the Champs Elysée.

A devil wearing bat-like wings and brandishing a trident dances around a giant pot, conjuring forth flame from his trident to lit a fire beneath the pot. After the devil works the fire with bellows, an angelic woman emerges from the pot. The devil and the pot vanish as the woman performs a dance, waving about her diaphanous sleeves until she conjures forth another fire, then she rises amongst the smoke into the air.

The Jewish ex-officer Alfred Dreyfus's degradation. He stands in a military quadrant and the Adjutant proceeds to tear off his medals; Dreyfus is compelled to pass in front of the troops in disgrace. Star Film catalog #216, this is part of Melies's Dreyfus Affair film series and is the second installment. It is one of two installments that has either been destroyed or never restored, and is thus not currently available to the public.

In a square room, two men and two women, in white body-hugging clothes, try on wrestling holds, each with a partner of the same sex.

Based on Shakespeare's play, Act V, Scene vii: King John is in torment, and his supporters fear that his end is near. As he writhes in agony, he is attended by Prince Henry, the Earl of Pembroke, and Robert Bigot. Prince Henry tries repeatedly to comfort his delirious father, but to no avail - John's pain is too great.

Short film about an express steamer

The first movie ever censored for political reasons. The title refers to the then contemporaneous Dreyfus affair in which a Jewish military officer was falsely convicted of treason, and it was alleged that he was framed due to anti-semitism.

Traffic and crowd in front of the stalls of a street market.

Sardinian horsemen parading, in traditional costumes.

Film shot from a ship at sea.

Shot at the Kubut-za in Tokyo and a rare record of two classical kubuki actors, Onoe Eizaburo V and Ichimura Kakuki-za VI, A surviving poster for this film is illustrated by a woodblock print of the lead actors by ukiyo-e artist Yutaka Hitoshi, a frozen moment of the incipient transition from traditional art-forms of ukiyo-e and kabuki to the new, and all-dominating medium of katsudo-shashin (cinema).

Within a printing (printing a test).

“Another exhibition by Prof. Leonidas' troop of cats and dogs. One of the dogs is shown stealing his dinner from the table in his master's absence. In order to cover his own crime, the dog places a cat on the table, where she is found when the master comes in.” (AMB Picture Catalogue, 1902)

A knight performs several magic tricks with a disembodied head materialized from a chalkboard drawing.