Entrée Et Sortie De La Mine

Actuality film of miners entering a mine.

Turn-of-the-Century Surgery

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” (usi...

Midwife to the Upper Class

A wonderful midwife helps a rich couple pick out a baby from her cabbage patch.

A House Divided

A married couple, suspecting one another of infidelity, decide to "live separately together."

Burstup Homes' Murder Case

A spoof of Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Alice Guy-Blache for Solax Film Company.

Falling Leaves

It's early autumn and Dr. Headley eagerly demonstrates what seems to be a miraculous cure for tuberculosis. Not far from where he is working, the disease seems preparing to soon claim yet another life, a teenage girl named Winifred. Winifred's mother and little sister Trixie are devastated. When Trixie hears the family doctor say of Winifred that "when the last leaf falls, she will have passed away," she interprets the doctor's words literally. Thinking over what she has heard, she determines to do everything possible to save her sister.

The Magician's Alms

A magician transforms a tiny dinner table into a full meal for a homeless man.

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy

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.

Faust and Mephistopheles

A re-telling of the classic tale of Faust in all of two minutes by French filmmaker Alice Guy.

On the Barricade

During the Paris Commune, a boy runs across trouble at the barricade.

L'Honneur du Corse

Fra Diavolo

Based on the opéra comique of the same name, the film follows the exploits of Italian brigand Fra Diavolo.

Danse du papillon

Butterfly dance.

Danse Fleur de Lotus

Serpentine dance.

The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ

The stations of Christ's life are segmented into a series of performative tableaux.

The Irresistible Piano

A piano entices anyone who comes near.

The Fisherman at the Stream

A boy is fishing in a stream when some others see an opportunity for mischief.

The Dream Woman

In this story the hero is haunted by a beautiful young woman who tries to stab him to death with a knife. This fantasy recurs on each of his birthdays, becoming more and more real as the years go on. He leaves home to secure a place as groom, but arrives at his destination too late. Forced to retrace his steps, he seeks shelter in a little inn, forgetting that the hour of his birth is approaching. In the middle of the night he awakens, terrified with fright… Based on Wilkie Collins' novel “The Dream Woman”.

Pierrette's Escapades

Columbine resists Pierrette's courting in favour of Harlequin in this hand-coloured short by Alice Guy.

Automated Hat-Maker and Sausage-Grinder

A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other.