Société Générale des Cinématographes Éclipse

To the rhythm of a frenzied choreography, acrobatic matches come to life on a black background. Leaving their matchbox, they line the film in circular, concentric movements. In an almost aquatic momentum, the squadron of little bits of wood mould the contours of a character, a run-of-the-mill smoker, before transforming into a funny harness. The film ends when the matches, again transformed, take on the appearance of a distinguished man who, after several attempts, finally finds a way of lighting his cigarette.

"A charming story of a young society girl and the pathetic love of a youth..." Considered a lost film.

Arthème loves playing the clarinet. He plays it in the streets, in the park, in the streetcar (at least when he does not miss it!). When he unfortunately walks under a piano clumsy removers are hauling, the heavy instrument falls down on him and he swallows his clarinet. A lot of people try to extirpate the protruding instrument but they all fail. Three farriers finally succeed in making him return to his former self.

Charles Servaes playing Polycarpe is cooking some eggs in his residential hotel. What do you need when you want to cook eggs?A clean chimney that won't kill you. So he takes a chimney brish up to the roof and gets to work. This does not please the other residents, when he pushes soot down their chimney into their rooms!

Jeanne Doré becomes the accomplice of her son Jacques who unfortunately commits a crime to help his mistress, Fanny, find money.

Polycarpe -- that's Charles Servaes -- encounters a painter in a museum. He strikes a funny pose and the painter decides he wants to paint that picture. However a succession of obstacles get in their way.

French adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum”.

The cyclist is dispatched upon an important errand, and his humorous and alarming adventures by the way form the subject of this series. Misadventure follows misadventure with great frequency, but the cyclist comes up smiling every time, mounts his machine, and again resumes his journey. Accidents which would maim or kill an ordinary mortal serve only to spur him on to fresh exertions in a mad search for physical inconveniences and dangers, which always present themselves. (Picture World)

Charles Servaes finds a coin on the ground and takes possession. When he tries to use it to pay for his cab ride, the cabbie says it's counterfeit. Sorry! I've nothing else, being a comic slapstick bum, indicates Servaes, and goes on his way to not pay a succession of people.

An Émile Cohl animation short.

An animation where real life objects turn into animations.

Artheme takes his elderly uncle for a walk in his wheelchair, but abandons the invalid in the woods overnight when he spots a pretty girl. (MoMA)

The homeless Polycarpe steals a rifle from some careless society sportsmen and goes on a mindless shooting spree. (MoMA)

Charles Servaes decides it's time to get out of the city, so he ties an abandoned bath tub to a truck and lets it tow him to the seaside. Once there, he spends his time talking to the camera with a self-satisfied smirk and annoying the people around him until the police carry him and his bath tub to the pokey.

Accident-prone Polycarpe wreaks havoc on a construction site—a popular location for so many early film comedies.

When Pierre Dormain and his wife die in a train disaster, the custody of their children Simon and Dédée is transferred to their uncle Jean de Mareuil. The uncle is persuaded to let his servant’s mother take charge of their care. The money she receives for the care is spent entirely on alcohol and the children have to work hard for their meal. Eventually the children run away from home and roam the streets of Paris. When one of the children is seriously injured after an accident, the uncle finally realizes he has made a grave mistake.

Ernest Servaes and his wife leave their apartment, hoping to have a peaceful picnic in the green suburbs. However, they miss the train. Then the carriage they take turns upside down. Then footballers tromp over their picnic cloth.