Marguerite is seated in front of the fireplace, Faust standing by her side. Mephistopheles enters and offers his sword to Faust, commanding him to behead the fair Marguerite. Faust refuses, whereupon Mephistopheles draws the sword across the throat of the lady and she suddenly disappears and Faust is seated in her place.
The movie consists solely of a saber fight. Bernhardt plays a cross-gender Hamlet, and Pierre Magnier is her fellow duelist, Laertes. A few bystanders, in Rennaissance dress, stand off to the right of the screen, and in the background, next to a painted backdrop.
The fairy at a cabbage patch hovers over the babies. This is a remake of Guy's 1896 film on the same subject, this time shot in 35 mm.
George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)
A man takes off his clothes in preparation for bed, only for new clothes to spontaneously generate, leading to comical consternation.
A panoramic shot, making a full circle, at the 1900 Paris Exposition. It begins and ends looking at the front of the Palace of Electricity. As it pans, first we see a workman hosing down the promenade. Men and women walk past, all wearing hats. We see the base of the Eiffel Tower, which the Palace faces. A couple strolls. A mother and daughter walk passed, father is slightly ahead wearing a boater. Three men in uniform walk toward the camera as it comes to a stop facing the Palace.
Two delinquent clerks are seated in a broker's office engaged in a game of cards. The boss suddenly appears walking through the corridor. The cards are thrown down in great haste and when the employer enters the office the clerks are apparently busily engaged in their work.
The reception to the future King Edward VII upon his arrival to Edinburgh in 1899.
Four men each hold a large slice of watermelon, and have a race to see who can finish eating first. All four move quickly, but one man seems to be pulling ahead of the others. Soon the contestants begin to hinder one another's efforts.
Uncle Josh checks into a hotel, presumably to get a better nights rest than he gets at home. Of course the way bad luck follows Josh around we know this is a forlorn hope. Sure enough, quicker than you can say "Georges Méliès" a ghost pops up to make sure Uncle Josh is denied a good nights rest.
Sherlock Holmes enters his drawing room to find it being burgled, but on confronting the villain is surprised when the latter disappears.
"The Bath" is a flip book remake of After the Ball (Après le Bal) made in the late 1800s.
A man misses his train due to his clothes turning into other types of clothes.
Comic scenes taken at the Nouveau-Cirque by the two famous clowns Foottit and Chocolat. To separate Foottit and Chocolat who are fighting, their servant brings a policeman to whom the two accomplices play all sorts of tricks.
Shots of the panorama, filmed from the winding railroad tracks that stretch along the coast, from Beaulieu to Monaco, including tunnel passages.
This scene opens by showing a pretty cook mixing bread in the kitchen. Jones comes in unexpectedly from a trip and carries a dress suitcase. He inquires for his wife and is told by the cook that she is absent. Jones is hungry and asks for something to eat. The cook is very obliging and Jones becomes unruly, chuckles the cook under the chin. The cook puts her arms around Jones' neck and leaves finger imprints of flour on his back. This is where the trouble commences. (Edison catalogue)
The entire story of Christmastide is here depicted. The scene opens in a large boudoir of an apparently wealthy man's home. His children, assisted by their governess, are about to retire. Before lying down they hang up their stockings on the edge of the bed. The picture changes and night appears. We see the housetops of the town and angels are flying about depositing packages in each of the chimneys. (Edison Catalog)
The picture opens with a crowd of Swiss boys and girls dressed in native costumes, marching down the street in this very unique and picturesque village. Each happy and smiling face is clearly shown as they pass the camera. The scene ends by the boys and girls congregating in the square and dancing to the strains of an accordion played by one of the happy villagers.
Showing the attacking forces drawn up in line of battle. They immediately commence firing on the shore batteries. The batteries return the fire with telling effect, but are at last silenced by the overwhelming forces of the enemy. In the distance can be seen the ruins of a bridge destroyed by the invading forces. The smoke thickens as the firing becomes general, and the effect is superb.
Kathryn Osterman, the well-known vaudeville comedienne, in a complete exposition of the methods of "making-up" the face for the stage. She shows the penciling of the eye-brows, blackening the eye lashes, rouging the lips, applying the grease paint and so forth. The work is done in a very dainty and interesting way. Only the head and shoulders of the subject are shown; the figure thus being very large. (AMB Picture Catalogue, 1902)
