The Astronomer's Dream 1898
An astronomer has a terrifying dream.
An astronomer has a terrifying dream.
A film from Méliès has him playing a magician who does a few tricks including making a woman disappear.
A Chinese conjurer stands next to a table, it becomes two tables. A fan becomes a parasol, lanterns appear and disappear. The conjurer spins the open parasol in front of himself, and a dog leaps out from behind it. The dog becomes a woman, then a masked man appears. The conjurer sits them each on a box a few feet apart: suddenly the woman and man have changed places. The disappearing and the transfers continue in front of a simple backdrop.
St. Anthony is tempted by visions of women, including one that is transformed from the image of Jesus Christ Himself!
A woman slips into her bed with the help of her servant. While the film is lost, there is a new digital version based on re-creation from a flipbook produced by Léon Beaulieu around the same time
A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.
The opening title card explains that a painter has just finished his work when his assistant comes in and accidentally drinks varnish. The film then picks up as the painter goes haywire and sends the assistant into the painting.
A traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.
Two guards bring a sorcerer into the hall of a palace of the time of the Middle Ages. The king who follows them orders the sorcerer to be chained and to be condemned to death for his practice of witchcraft. He begs the king to permit him just one hour of liberty, assuring the king that he will create, thanks to his power, a charming woman, worthy of becoming the king's consort. The king, after a moment of hesitation, agrees.
Alone in his room at an inn, a lustful old man is haunted by spirits.
A family goes to a photographer. The photographer pushes the boy around, and no one seems to care. The boy gets his revenge.
Into a photography studio full of large fantastic machines steps an elderly couple. The bearded proprietor explains the equipment and gives them a demonstration: he starts machines whirring, and projects a painting of three women onto a large screen; suddenly the women begin to move. The customers are impressed. First the women sits in the special seat: she's projected onto the screen, and her good nature comes out in the laughing image. Then it's the man's turn, but the machine discloses a vastly different nature in him. Will his reaction threaten our proprietor's inventions?
A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.
A staged Wild West kidnapping goes awry when the cowboys accidentally capture an actress who uses her acting skills to turn the tables on them.
A lost film. Georges Méliès also directed a film entitled Faust aux enfers in 1903 that is frequently confused with this one, but it has little to do with the story of Faust.
A conjurer (along with two duplicates) conjure up (and then cause to vanish) a beautiful woman head-first.
After being defeated in a fight by a local gang, local official Lu Fengyang sends his weak and sickly son Lu Xiaoqing to study with a master of the Kunlun school of martial arts. Recovered and strong, he comes upon the Red Lotus Temple, and puts up there for the night. Unable to sleep, he begins looking around the palatial temple, and discovers a room decorated with many images of Buddhist demons, and an altar to worship them... Purposely destroyed serial film whose 19 full length chapters (averaging 86 minutes each) originally ran 27 hours in length.
With godly entrapments, Zeus appears on the horizon, engages Hermes as an audience, and tries to throw some thunderbolts. They fizzle. Hephaestus tries to make some repairs but succeeds only in heating the bolts and burning Zeus's hands. Zeus conjures nine muses, but do their incantations help? He dismisses them as well as a visiting Pan, and his fits of pique become counter-productive. Can he get his powers back?
An Egyptian prince has lost his beloved wife and he has sought a dervish who dwells at the base of the sphinx.
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.