Paris, rue de Castiglione (1896)

In the early inscriptions, this film is presented as a “lyrical bounce from reality” but not “senseless extravagance.” The plot involves a trek official to the advice of “There will be a hole in the sky even if you go back”, the procession of two people with a wardrobe and a march of people defending the established rules (“Down with walking backwards”). The formal aspect in the movie is a lot of trick shots using a mirror, photographs and negatives.

19th century carnival ride.

A brief scene at a sheep slaughterhouse.

A short Surrealist animation from Denmark which begins with a zoom into a Paul Delvaux painting, then reverses the process by pulling back from a continually changing picture.

A writer is persecuted by an enormous and abusive letter 'A'.

The parade occupies only a small portion of the screen, the crowds are a seething mass that do really move and the Independence Bell is nowhere to be seen.

A bill poster comes upon a blank wall, and immediately puts up a poster advertising a movie show at one location.

Film about politically motivated violence in the Kingdom of Prussia.

An artist receives the visit of Grogg, an animated captain, to draw his portrait

Animation. The theme is Weightlessness. Objects and characters are cut loose from habitual meanings, also from tensions and gravitational limitations. A lyric Eric Satie track accompanies the film. Such a portrait seems necessary from time to time to remind us that equilibrium and harmony are possible, and that we will not dissolve into a jelly if we allow ourselves to relax into them: A horseman rides through the landscape, through the town, but never arrives anywhere in particular. An acrobat swings on a rope above a canal in Venice, and is content just to swing there. Nothing threatens to disturb them. This film is a total contrast to the Kafka-like oddities of Eastern European animation. —Canyon Cinema

A man and a woman converse at a cafe's bar in this animated short.

The camera pans across a field of flowers at extreme speeds in this short film by Hollis Frampton.

Boys diving into a river.

Another street scene from the Lumiere company

Oscar nominated animated short from 1972. An animated short from British comedian Bob Godfrey.

An exotic dancer recalls an incident from her childhood where she was physically abused by a male visitor.

Walking four abreast, in groups of six rows, 144 of Chicago's finest parade past a stationary camera. Each of the six groups that pass is escorted by an officer. All are men, all are white, all look tall, all wear identical high-buttoned uniforms and badges and carry a nightstick. Almost all sport mustaches. Behind the police comes a horse-drawn carriage.

This is one of the classic animations of the 1990s with its surreal tale of the struggle between the sexes. All the strains as well as the closeness of relationships are shown, the title referring to the repetition of the tensions throughout our lives. It also reveals the role the woman plays in a marriage and the need, though often not communicated properly, of the man for this companionship and support.

Animated short film by Christopher Hinton.

A send-up of Griffith's THE LONELY VILLA and other movies of that sort, such as THE GIRLS AND DADDY, THE LONEDALE OPERATOR and many others, as the heroine, thinking that burglars are trying to break into her home phones her husband at the office, who rushes home.... well, who tries to rush home in his chauffeur-driven automobile.