Anno 1900 - 3

Four mountaineers descend a snow-covered mountain.

“Showing the entire height of this wonderful structure from the base of the dome and return, with the great Paris Exposition in the background, looking down Champs de Mars. A most realistic picture.” According to Edison film historian Charles Musser, this film features the first camera tilt among the company's surviving oeuvre.

A magician presents a circular piece of paper from which he removes the flags of the allies. Then from each flag he produces a soldier from the respective country, and finally he produces a Chinaman. But hardly have the allies seen the latter than they pounce on him and try to cut him into pieces. The funniest part of our story is that the Chinaman escapes in a balloon, with an expression of childish innocence on his face as the allies try to cut him up.

Comic scenes taken at the Nouveau-Cirque by the two famous clowns Foottit and Chocolat. During a battle between Foottit and Chocolat, the latter, who received a slap, plays dead; a stretcher is brought in to carry it away, but the prankster passes under it and happily performs a few gambols while the carriers believe they are carrying away a corpse.”

Two silent films capture a panoramic view of the 'Rue de l'Avenir', an electric powered moving walkway displayed at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900).

A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.

Near the center of this scene we see the regimental surgeon directing the movements of the Ambulance Corps. Tenderly they pick up the unfortunates and place them in the ambulance. The numbers disabled show the battle has been a hot one, and many a poor fellow, if he survives with injuries, will carry to his grave the scars honorably acquired in his country's cause.

In this subject a "comique eccentric" enters the drawing room inhabited by spirits. He tries to take off his coat and hat, but these garments return to his head and shoulders as soon as he takes them off. The chairs, his umbrella, his hat, etc., fly away in different directions and by various methods. (Star Film Catalog)

Short film about a magician.

Overview of the Alexandre III bridge during the World Exhibition in Paris.

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

Filmed off the coast of Rhode Island, this Edison short takes place on the U.S. torpedo boat Morris as we see some men loading up a torpedo that is eventually shot off. This film lasts only 75-seconds but it's almost as if the director wanted to save the best for last. The first sixty-seconds are pretty lifeless as we barely get to see what's going on but once the torpedo is shot off things pick up.

Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosure, and despite the title, does not actually feature a web.

White’s camera offers several 360-degree pans of views of the fairground, then amazes by tilting up and down the Eiffel Tower, and concludes with a stunning tracking shot to the highest point above Paris. Exhibitors freely grouped films into nascent narratives such as those displayed here. - Bruce Posner

In a charming dining room a very attractive young lady is seen seated at the table, evidently waiting for the caller who is to share a quiet little dinner for two. A moment later a dude of the regular chappy type enters and seats himself at the table. As soon as the meal commences the inevitable wicked small boy sneaks in unobserved, and producing a piece of rope ties one end securely to the dude's coat tails and fastens the other to the table-cloth.

Elaborate floats and costumes parading the streets of Nice.

Using photographs and films shot by a French Consul, Auguste François, in turn-of-the-century China, documents the historic events and everyday life he saw around him. Narration uses his letters, diaries, and notes.

Here we have a mixed company of Gordon Highlanders, Irish Fusilliers and English Lancers, as a group of prisoners taken to the rear by a troop of Boer Cavalry. The expression on their faces show who is the victor, and who is the vanquished. You can read in the dust and smoke-begrimed countenance of the prisoners, the story of their stubborn resistance to superior numbers before the surrender: while the Boers give expression to their feelings, by cheering and waving their hats in triumph as they pass.