The Enchanted Well (1903)

Pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès performs his cine-magic act.

A magician transforms a woman into a portrait of herself, then restores her to life.

The scene is similar to that seen at Coney Island, where a number of shows are constantly going on.

A magic show.

Alone in his room at an inn, a lustful old man is haunted by spirits.

John, who loves the bottle a little too much, is one of a group of sightseers. Too drunk to follow the party, the reeling drunkard remains on the site of a ruin where he starts having hallucinations.

This film from 1907 is sadly incomplete as it's only available in a two-minute fragment. 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.

Two impish clowns construct a magic lantern. They prop it up at an angle, and use it to project pictures onto a wall. When the picture show ends, they open up the lantern to reveal a group of dancing girls inside - and this is only the first of the indications that this lantern really is magical.

A marriage procession following the bride and her father enter a church.

Film about politically motivated violence in the Kingdom of Prussia.

A well-dressed, middle-aged man is enjoying a drink at a table with a pretty young woman. He flirts with her, and she seems not to mind his attentions. But is it all too good to be true?

Doctors blow to pieces a patient in a hydrotherapy machine and re-assemble him.

A trio of prankish boarders wreak havoc on their landlady and an intervening policeman.

Small glimpse of Paris city life.

A very heavy turret is transported on a truck drawn by a long line of horses. The inscription “Charlemagne 53790K” readable on the turret suggests that this view was shot in the vicinity of Saint-Chamond, a town where there are factories specializing in the construction of heavy steel. It is certainly a turret intended for the battleship “Charlemagne”. In addition, a view projected by the Aléthorama on January 20, 1898 in Saint-Étienne, and entitled “Transportation of the armored turret of Saint-Chamond by a team of 80 horses”, could represent the same event.

A day at the carnival — sensational tent shows where miracles can be seen for the price of admission, boisterous noise of crowds and barkers, shrill and gaudy circus music, the violence of the street ten-fold. This is the substance of Everything Turns, Richter’s first sound film. At its premier at Baden-Baden Richter got into a fight with two Nazi officials who disliked the film's ‘modernism.’ Yet in 1936 it was awarded first prize for artistic merit by the Nazis, with Richter’s name suppressed from the credits. He had long since left Germany.

Another street scene from the Lumiere company

Short of the Tuileries.

A man attempts to engender a transformation of a giant worm into a butterfly.

Three young women dance in Drury Lane, London.