Parsifal

Parsifal 1904

1

Klingsor seeks admission to the Holy Grail. Evil summons Kundry. Herzeloid appears with the child Parsifal. Crowning of Amfortas. Wounding of Amfortas. Carrying Amfortas to his bath. Kundry brings relief to Amfortas. Parsifal reproached for killing the Swan. Kundry succumbs to Evil. Knights entering the Holy Grail. Parsifal unmoved. Klingsor summons Kundry. Parsifal enters the Magic Garden. Kundry kisses Parsifal. Parsifal calls upon the Saviour. Parsifal repulses Kundry. Klingsor hurls the Sacred Spear. Destruction of the Magic Garden. Guernemanz restores Kundry. Parsifal appears with Sacred Spear. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet. Amfortas tears open his wound. Parsifal heals Amfortas. Parsifal becomes King of the Holy Grail.

1904

The Impossible Voyage

The Impossible Voyage 1904

7.22

Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.

1904

Dog Factory

Dog Factory 1904

4.50

A brief vaudeville-style demonstration of a "Dog Transformator," a machine that instantly turns dogs into sausages, and amazingly, sausages back into dogs.

1904

The Untamable Whiskers

The Untamable Whiskers 1904

6.20

The background of this picture represents a scene along the beautiful river Seine in Paris. A gentleman enters, and taking a blackboard from the side of the picture, he draws on it a sketch of a novelist. Then, standing in the centre, he causes the living features of his sketch to appear in the place of his own, which is utterly devoid of whiskers. The change is made so mysteriously that the eye cannot notice it until one sees quite another person in the place of the first. Again another sketch is shown on the board, this one being that of a miser; then an English cockney; a comic character; a French policeman, and last of all, the grinning visage of Mephistopheles. It is almost impossible to give this film a more definite description; suffice it to say that it is something entirely new in motion pictures and is sure to please. (Méliès Catalog)

1904

Scarecrow Pump

Scarecrow Pump 1904

4.60

A pump stands outside a farmhouse, just inside a picket fence. A boy comes out of the house and dresses up the pump handle and its post as a scarecrow, so that he can play a practical joke on a drunken acquaintance when he passes by. The boy then hides and waits for him, but things do not turn out quite as he planned.

1904

Tit for Tat

Tit for Tat 1904

5.70

Georges Melies the magician. Melies removes his own head, puts it in a glass box on a stool, then grows another one. Melies lights up a cigarette and blows smoke at his old head. The head gets payback by levitating above Melies and spewing water on him.

1904

The Mermaid

The Mermaid 1904

5.58

A magician conjures up a mermaid while fishing.

1904

Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer

Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer 1904

4.80

A Chinese conjurer stands next to a table, it becomes two tables. A fan becomes a parasol, lanterns appear and disappear. The conjurer spins the open parasol in front of himself, and a dog leaps out from behind it. The dog becomes a woman, then a masked man appears. The conjurer sits them each on a box a few feet apart: suddenly the woman and man have changed places. The disappearing and the transfers continue in front of a simple backdrop.

1904

Bucking Broncos

Bucking Broncos 1904

5.50

Some cowboys of the Wild West Show saddle bronchos not without difficulties.

1904

The Hero of Liao-Yang

The Hero of Liao-Yang 1904

4.70

Several Japanese youths are playing various games and enjoying some refreshments outdoors when a military courier arrives. The messenger asks for one of the young men, and gives him his orders. The young man puts on his uniform, leaves home, and reports to a unit in the field, where preparations are being made for a battle against the Russians. The young soldier is then sent on a dangerous but important mission.

1904

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden 1904

6.00

Opens with a woman posing on a pedestal, dressed in a white body leotard with a sash tied at her hips. Marshall continues with various feminine poses, reminiscent of classic Greek statuary, to accentuate her figure. Film cuts to Treloar posed on the bare stage without a pedestal. He wears brief leopard-skin trunks or short tunic, wrist bands, and Roman-looking laced sandals. His poses accentuate the muscular development of his upper body, particularly that of his arms, and include movements that make the muscles jump. Treloar finishes with a slight nod to the camera.

1904

Maniac Chase

Maniac Chase 1904

5.92

A “madman” escapes prison and the torments of his warders.

1904

Pranks of Buster Brown and His Dog Tige

Pranks of Buster Brown and His Dog Tige 1904

5.50

Scene I of the Buster Brown Series. The opening scene shows Bridget asleep at the kitchen-table, and Buster enters on tip-toe. After tying her apron over her head and to the back of the chair, he tries to reach a jar of jam on the top shelf of the pantry. After several futile attempts, he gives up. His attention is now attracted by a tramp at the window...

1904

Welding the Big Ring

Welding the Big Ring 1904

5.10

A group of men weld one area of a large ring in a fire. They lift the ring, which is hanging horizontally on chains, out of the fire. Four men hammer the hot area on the ring into shape while the remaining men hold the ring. They put the ring into the fire again, take it out, and take it over to a machine which continuously hammers down on that area of the ring. The men then take it away from the machine and hammer it themselves into shape. The ring is presumably a piece of a generator.

1904

A Catastrophe in Hester Street

A Catastrophe in Hester Street 1904

6.00

Two workers leave boxes of explosives with a push cart street vendor while they visit a bar. They return drunk and accidentally drop a box of nitro powder, causing an explosion that wrecks the block and blows off the vendor’s arm. A policeman shows up to the carnage and tries to replace the vendor’s arm with a severed leg.

1904

Scenes on Every Floor

Scenes on Every Floor 1904

1

The 1904–1905 Pathé short Un coup d’œil par étage (literally “A Glance on Each Floor”) is an inventive early comedy that presents a whimsical peek into life across multiple apartments in a single building. It plays with cinematic point-of-view and narrative structure in a way that was novel at the time. The film cuts between brief vignettes on each apartment floor: a man at a phone, a pillow fight between children, an elderly lady with a cat—and finally, a resident scrambling to extinguish curtains that have caught fire. Structured as a vertical tour ("par étage"), the short runs about 6 minutes in restored screenings and was featured in retrospectives on early cinem

1904

An Interesting Story

An Interesting Story 1904

5.96

The adventures of an inattentive man who can't look away from his book.

1904

The Old Chorister

The Old Chorister 1904

1

An aged villager, reminded of his boyhood days in the church choir by the sound of the bells, totters to the church door and begs the vicar to allow him to join in and sing once more. He expires in the chancel, happy.

1904