Afọ 1897

Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1897.

Most movie fans know that the first filmmakers liked to shoot trains entering stations. This example by Sussex film pioneer George Albert Smith illustrates why. The train's rush towards the audience brings movement and visual drama. The flurry of human activity offers plenty for the audience to engage with - who are these people and where are they going? And the time pressure exerted by the fact that the train must soon depart adds narrative tension - will everyone get on and off in time?

Lasting for roughly 50 seconds, it shows the goodbyes of many passersby - first Europeans, then Palestinian Arabs, then Palestinian Jews - as a train leaves Jerusalem.

A fight breaks out between two men in medieval Stockholm, Sweden.

Lovers are comically interrupted

Remake of the 1895 comedy by the Lumière Brothers. A similar scene is filmed from a different angle, and a young man has replaced the prankster child. This film was made by Henri Lavesque under the name of Brother Basile-Joseph. All of his production was appropriated by Gaumont by the end of 1897 to be distributed as demonstrations for Georges Demenÿ's 60mm Chronophotographe.

Gugusse, a clown, is both astounded and bewildered upon seeing the mechanical movements of an automaton.

A woman wearing dragonfly wings performs a romantic dreamlike dance.

Groups of men and women, parading in Interlaken, Switzerland, some of them carrying banners.

The hen house occupies the entire left foreground of the picture, running back to the nearby road. The main foreground is filled with tall grass swept by the wind, the naturalness of which effect is remarkable. A thief appears 'round the corner, carrying a tattered sack. He suspiciously approaches the window, from which two fowl are handed to him by a black confederat, who himself suddenly appears at the window, falling out head first but clinging tenaciously to a fluttering white bird.

An old man gets progressively livelier - and drunker - as he downs his bottle of beer. Finally, he cocks a snook - and doesn't bother to uncock it as he continues to drink.

Several members of European Royalty, including the Duke and Duchess of York, and Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, seated round a tea-table in the grounds of Clarence House.