Société Générale des Cinématographes Éclipse

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

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)

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

French horror short from 1911.

An animation where real life objects turn into animations.

Detective Nat Pinkerton is captured by a gang of murderous bank robbers known as The Black Riders, but he turns the tables on them in the nick of time.

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

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.

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

Artheme is fascinated when he sees a conjurer do some simple tricks with a magic wand, and so he steals it, proceeding to change a horse into a cow,an auto into a donkey cart,and a man into demon in a park.

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.

A couple takes a trip through the city on a tandem bike - chaos ensues.

The lighthouse keeper has an attack while cleaning the light. He makes his unsteady way down to the living quarters and collapses. While his wife tends him, their children turn the lights that guide ships through saf passage by hand.

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

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.

An Émile Cohl animation short.