.Yl 1900 - 17

Hi-jinx with a clown photographer

A woman dancing.

A magician dressed as Mephistopheles conjures up a variety of people and objects in this short film.

This British Bioscope short from 1900 is a crackerjack piece, on an order with 1903's FIREBOAT 'NEW YORKER' ANSWERING AN ALARM. It's little more than a perfectly framed picture of the Odin slowly leaving harbor, with all her guns ablaze in the roiling clouds and flashes of cordite.

Two comedians are washing at basins. One covers himself in white soap lather, but slyly gives blacking to his fellow, who applies vigorously.

An explosive bit of early war film. These two exciting snippets were potentially part of a much larger action extravaganza. Originating from Alfred West's early blockbuster (two million people had seen it screened at Regent Street - by West's own count), they may have come from a series called 'Our Navy At War'. As the catalogue boasts, "It was shown... before an audience consisting of Naval officers and men from the various ships, who spoke in the highest praise of the truthfulness and realism of the various scenes." These excerpts are perhaps from the film described thus: "There is a terrific explosion. The battle rages in detail."

An astonishing display of synchronised gymnastics. The looping, synchronised vaults on display here are truly mesmerising - thanks both to the skill of the gymnasts and the shrewd positioning of the camera. Military and athletic displays were a popular subject for film from its earliest days, and this demonstration works as visual spectacle and study of movement.

Take an exhilarating ride on one of the most spectacular rail journeys in the world, the Hong Kong Peak Tram. The route opened in 1888, and this 'phantom ride' (a popular early film genre for which the camera was mounted on a moving vehicle) offers glimpses of the harbour and lower Hong Kong in the distance as you descend from 400 meters. But as a funicular railway, the most heartstopping moment is the sight of the upward tram arriving on what looks like a collision course...

In an arena, a Landes race scene with cows.

British fictional propaganda film on a Boer defeat in the Second Boer War, 27th February 1900

This striking film re-stages an episode from the Matabele wars between African natives and British infantry

TRICK. Two bathers arrive at a river, disrobe at the water's edge and dive in. The action is then reversed and the men are seen leaving the water feet first and their clothes fly back on their bodies.

It is worthy of note that the film can be watched in a shorter amount of time than it takes to to say the film's title.

A couple is attacked by warriors.

Cléo de Merode dancing the gavotte in 1900.

A splendid picture of the remarkable centrifuge railroad at Coney Island in which the car makes a complete circle in its course around the track, commonly known as "Loop the Loop."

This short film, along with other experimental sound films, is thought to have been recorded for the Paris 'Exposition Universelle' of 1900.