Collection of Great Films (1874 - 1949)
List activity
190 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
98 titles
- DirectorP.J.C. JanssenSeries of photographs of the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun in 1874.9 Dec
First Film Ever - DirectorEadweard MuybridgeStarsGilbert DommSallie GardnerThe clip shows a jockey, Gilbert Domm, riding a horse, Sallie Gardner. The clip is not filmed; instead, it consists of 24 individual photographs shot in rapid succession, making a moving picture when using a zoopraxiscope.15 Jun
- DirectorLouis Aimé Augustin Le PrinceStarsAnnie HartleyAdolphe Le PrinceJoseph WhitleyIn the garden, a man asks his friends to do something silly for him to record on film.14 Oct
First Real-Time Film Ever. - DirectorLouis Aimé Augustin Le PrinceStarsAdolphe Le PrinceA very brief film of a man playing the accordion.Oct
- DirectorWilliam Friese-GreeneA lost film not seen since it was made.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonWilliam HeiseStarsGiuseppe Sacco AlbaneseOne of W.K.L. Dickson's laboratory workers horses around for the camera.
- DirectorÉtienne-Jules MareyShot of the flight of a fly.
- DirectorWilliam Carr CroftsWordsworth DonisthorpeA shot of Trafalgar Square.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsWilliam K.L. DicksonThe very first American film shown to public audiences and the press. It depicts William K.L. Dickson taking off his hat and greeting the audience.20 May
First film shown to an audience. - 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.28 Oct
First film having a plot. - DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsCharles KayserJohn OttThree men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around.9 May
First film to be commercially shown to an audience and distributed. - 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.9 Jan
First copyrighted film. - 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.10 Mar
First woman ever on screen. - DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsWilliam K.L. DicksonThe earliest extant sound film. William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new Thomas Edison machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.Sep
First film to ever have sound. - DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonStarsAnnabelle MooreAnnabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dances. For this performance, her costume has a pair of wings attached to her back, to suggest a butterfly. As she dances, she uses her long, flowing skirts to create visual patterns.20 Sep
- DirectorAlexander BlackStarsBlanche BaylissWilliam CourtenayChauncey DepewThe adventures of a female reporter in the 1890s.9 Oct
First feature-length (45 min.) pre-film. - 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.22 Mar
First film projected and watched by an audience (together). - DirectorAlfred ClarkStarsRobert ThomaeMrs. Robert L. ThomasThis short film, one of the first to use camera tricks, depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.Aug
First film to use a camera trick. - DirectorLouis LumièreStarsFrançois ClercBenoît DuvalAn impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.28 Dec
First comedy. - DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.25 Jan
- DirectorAlice GuyStarsAlice GuyGermaine SerandYvonne SerandThe first film directed by a female director, "The Cabbage Fairy" presents a brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Gently moving through the cabbages and using of lovely gestures, she takes one baby out of there, then makes more magic and delivers two more.First narrative fiction film and first female director.
- DirectorWilliam HeiseStarsMay IrwinJohn C. RiceIn a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.First kiss on screen.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreAlexandre PromioA train is leaving a railway station at the outskirts of Jerusalem. From the very end of the train a barren, rocky landscape is seen, and some ruins of very old buildings,. Five men walk along the track, tipping their hats when the train departs. When it approaches the station building more people are seen, people of different ethnicity and religion. Some men wear fezzes on their heads and canes in their hands. A Franciscan monk comes walking in the middle of a mixed group of people. The platform outside the station is crowded with people waiting for the next train. Among them is a man with a sword at his side. The big windows of the station are covered with shutters. After the station the train passes a long fence, enclosing a lumberyard.
- DirectorWilliam Heise"A comic subject, clear, bright and characteristic. Shows four girls in their night dresses, engaged in an animated pillow fight. During the action the pillows become torn, and the feathers fly over their heads and about the room in great numbers, producing with the white dresses and the black background a novel effect. Sharp, full of action, and popular in character."24 May