Oldest Films in the History
List activity
8.3K views
• 26 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
43 titles
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsCarmencitaPerforming on what looks like a small wooden stage, wearing a dress with a hoop skirt and white high-heeled pumps, Carmencita does a dance with kicks and twirls, a smile always on her face.
- DirectorÉmile ReynaudLost short film consisting of 300 painted images. It shows a clown entering a circus ring and greeting the audience before he starts to perform tricks with three dogs. The dogs jump through hoops, walk on a ball and jump over a wand.
- DirectorÉmile ReynaudOne night, Arlequin come to see his lover Colombine. But then Pierrot knocks at the door and Colombine and Arlequin hide. Pierrot starts singing but Arlequin scares him and the poor man goes away.
- DirectorÉmile ReynaudLost 1892 French short animated film directed by Émile Reynaud about a wanderer who orders a good beer ("Un bon bock") and meets a traveler who also orders a beer. They enter an argument because a kitchen boy steals their beers.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsCharles KayserJohn OttThree men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. Dickson
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonWilliam HeiseStarsJames J. CorbettPeter CourtneyJames J. Corbett and Peter Courtney meet in a boxing exhibition.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsFred OttA man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the first motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.
- DirectorAlexander BlackStarsBlanche BaylissWilliam CourtenayChauncey DepewThe adventures of a female reporter in the 1890s.
- DirectorLouis LumièreWorkers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
- DirectorMax SkladanowskyStarsGrunatoThe fifth sequence of the "Wintergartenprogramm (1895)" by the Skladanowsky Brothers. In it, eight circus performers known as the Grunato Family perform their famous balancing act.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreP.J.C. JanssenThe photographers who need to participate in the congress of Lyon get off a boat in Neuville-sur-Saône, dividing to the right and left.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsFrançois ClercBenoît DuvalAn impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.
- DirectorÉmile ReynaudPre-cinematograph colour animation of a woman and man at the beach.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsMrs. Auguste LumiereJeanne-Joséphine LumièreThree men in a rowboat are leaving the harbor.
- DirectorEmil SkladanowskyMax SkladanowskyStarsPloetzLarellaThe first sequence of the "Wintergartenprogramm (1895)" by the Skladanowsky Brothers. In it, two children, Ploetz and Larella, perform an Italian peasant dance.
- DirectorMax SkladanowskyStarsDelawareThe third sequence of the "Wintergartenprogramm (1895)" by the Skladanowsky Brothers. In it, a man and a kangaroo stand up in front of each other with boxing gloves, and simulate a boxing match on a theatre stage.
- DirectorBirt AcresA stationary camera, looking diagonally across a racetrack toward the infield, records the horses as they race past. Once they are out of view and the race is over, police officers run onto the infield. The crowd moves around.
- DirectorLouis LumièreTwo blacksmiths work while the vapors rise in the air. Later, another man arrives and offers a drink.
- DirectorLouis LumièreSeveral little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.
- DirectorBirt AcresStarsEmpress Augusta VictoriaKaiser Wilhelm II
- DirectorBirt AcresAlthough the content of this film is primitive in the extreme - a shot of the traditional Oxford versus Cambridge University Boat Race, filmed on March 30 1895 - this film is of immense historical importance as being the first ever British film
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAntoine FéraudAntoine LumièreFélicien TreweyTwo men play cards, as a third watches and a waiter brings drinks. The third man pours drinks as the waiter laughs.
- DirectorLouis LumièreA stationary camera looks across the boulevard at a diagonal toward one corner of Lyon's Cordeliers' Square. It's a long shot, with a great deal of depth of focus. We can see the sky and fronts of four buildings, each four or five stories tall. It's a busy thoroughfare, with pedestrians walking in front of the buildings and crossing the boulevard between horse-drawn vehicles. A double-decker bus passes in front of us, pulled by two horses. Various tradesmen pass on wagons. One van passes.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAndrée LumièreAuguste LumièreA baby held by his father dips his little hands into a water jug and he can' t catch the goldfish .
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreMrs. Auguste LumiereAndrée LumièreAs part of a maiden public film screening at the Salon Indien, on December 28, in Paris, Auguste Lumière pivots the centre of attention around his baby daughter, as he tries to feed her from a spoon.
- DirectorLouis LumièreOutdoors, with a nondescript building in the background, four men stand, each holding the corner of a blanket stretched parallel to the ground. They wear the clothes of laborers. By the back corner on our left stands a uniformed man who seems in charge. A sixth man stands back from the blanket about six paces; he runs forward and takes a leap but stops at the edge of the blanket and is upbraided by the uniformed gent. The same thing happens a second time, but the next three times, he completes a flip, landing on his back in the middle of the blanket, and the four then boost him out toward the camera. The final time seems like it will be his last for awhile.
- DirectorBirt AcresRobert W. PaulThe sea is quite rough, and at Dover a series of heavy waves pounds against a pier and along the adjacent shoreline. The scene then shifts to a different view of flowing water, and shows a heavy current from a point along a riverbank.
- DirectorMax SkladanowskyStarsAncionThe seventh sequence of the "Wintergartenprogramm (1895)" by the Skladanowsky Brothers. In it, a young female dancer with large, flowing robes, swirls round herself quickly, making her light robe flow around her like a butterfly's wings.
- DirectorLouis LumièreA man tries to get on a horse , but he climbs to one side and falls from the other, until he manages to stay in balance.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsThis lost film presumably features a train arriving at Vincennes station.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsJoseph JeffersonThe seventh of eight short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson in which he chronicles the story of Rip Van Winkle. In this film, Rip awakes from his slumber, having significantly aged during his sleep.
- DirectorWilliam HeiseStarsScoops CareyZane GreyScott Stratton"The Reading's [Pennsylvania] pitcher has just let a Newark [New Jersey] batsman walk to first. Our camera is stationed about twenty feet from the bag, and the satisfied grin of the runner is great as he touches first and gets up on his toes for second. Next man cracks first ball pitched for a two-bagger, and races for the base with a wonderful burst of speed. First baseman just misses a put out. Very exciting. Man on the coaching line yells, and umpire runs up and makes decision. Small boy runs past back of the catcher close to the grand stand, where there is great commotion. A most excellent subject, treated brilliantly."
- DirectorLouis LumièrePeople start a snowball fight on a street in Lyons, France.
- DirectorGabriel VeyreIn three successive waves, civil guard riders quickly cross the plain.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreAuguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.
- DirectorAurélio da Paz dos ReisCampinos on horseback drive small herds of cattle through the vast area of the traditional fair, before prospective buyers.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsJoseph JeffersonThe eighth and final of eight short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson in which he chronicles the story of Rip Van Winkle. In this film, an elderly Rip crosses the mountain.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsJoseph JeffersonThe first of eight short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson in which he chronicles the story of Rip Van Winkle. In this film, two men - one of them being Rip himself - toast and enjoy their drinks.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJehanne d'AlcyGeorges MélièsAn astronomer falls asleep and has a strange dream involving a fairy queen and the Moon.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsBleuette BernonJeanne CalvièreJehanne d'AlcyA divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
- DirectorAugust BlomStarsOlaf FønssCarl LauritzenEbba ThomsenA comet, passing by Earth, causes rioting, social unrest, and major disasters that destroy the world.