Year 1896 - 2

Passers-by on a street market in Marseille.

A stationary camera looks across a busy corner toward a store front marked "The Divan." The words "des fees" are beneath. A cortege of Arabs, about 20 persons in the party, walk past; the dignitaries are in front, attended by men with horns and drums. Coming in the other direction are local Swiss, who pay little attention, and a group of native-garbed Africans. The dozen or so well-dressed denizens of Geneva who are sitting on the steps of the Divan take it all in.

"A well-known character, in a dance that created considerable excitement when first introduced in America."

An early Algerian film depicting donkeys

The first movie audiences took particular delight in scenes of rushing, churning water. These scenes of Niagara Falls were taken in September 1896, while Dickson and Bitzer were filming McKinley and the Empire State Express.

Strong-man Eugene Sandow flexes his muscles and strikes a few poses in front of a black background. This was a short film shot by William K.L. Dickson for the American Mutoscope Company and is not the 1894 Edison film shot at the Black Maria.

Panorama of the docks, the city and the bridge of a boat sailing the Rhine river in Cologne, Germany.

This attractively composed one-shot film offers viewers an uncomplicated view of waves crashing against rocks.

Two cocks fight whilst being watched by two men.

Geneva (Exhibition 1896): back to the barn.

A series of short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson which chronicle the adventures of Rip Van Winkle.

In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.

A staged scene of a mugging on a London street. The interesting feature here is the hand controlled flashing light street sign used in the backdrop, showing us in a short glimpse that we would have seen such signs in the earliest days of electricity on city streets.

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.

Auguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.

A newlywed couple in front of their wedding-bed after their wedding. The woman undresses in front of her husband. A French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made.

The water beats relentlessly against the Hell's Mouth (Boca do Inferno), one of the main natural attractions of Lisbon's west coast, filmed from above almost in a vertical plunge onto the deep, rocky ground.

Three men are sitting around a table, two of them playing a game of Écarté. When the game is over, a domestic serves drinks.