Curs 1907

The first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

The film, a parody of the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, follows a fisherman, Yves, who dreams of traveling by submarine to the bottom of the ocean, where he encounters both realistic and fanciful sea creatures, including a chorus of naiads played by dancers from the Théâtre du Châtelet. Méliès's design for the film includes cut-out sea animals patterned after Alphonse de Neuville's illustrations for Verne's novel.

In this film, Méliès concocts a combination fairy- and morality tale about the foolishness of trying to look too deeply into the workings of an unstable and inscrutable universe. At a medieval school, an old astronomer begins to teach a class of young men, all armed with telescopes, about the art of scrutinising an imminent eclipse. When a mechanical clock strikes twelve, all the young men rush to the windows and fix their telescopes on the heavens.

A traveler stays the night at a rural inn, but gets no rest as he is tormented by various spectres and mysterious happenings.

A group of travellers go into a house for protection. Little do they know, it is filled with ghosts who make unusual things happen to them.

A pig dressed in fancy clothes flirts with a pretty girl, but she humiliates him and tears off his suit; she then makes him dance for her affections.

A demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him.

A nicely-dressed man is riding on a bicycle. When he parks it a hobo quickly steals it, but he is clearly new at riding. He cannot manage to steer in a straight line, and it is not long before he becomes quite a hazard to pedestrians and to others in his path.

A peddler of "the best glue" sets up his outdoor stall. A crowd gathers for a demonstration. As he gives his pitch, two observant cops decide drive off his customers and close him down, much to his fury. He seeks revenge as they sit on a park bench.

The plot follows King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under the English Channel.

A magician is surprised when he attempts to transform a beetle.

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.

A dog runs away with a length of sausage. Chaos erupts as the butcher chasing the dog collides with bystanders who angrily follow.

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.

A boy spreads glue all over town.

A policeman spots a dog stealing a piece of meat from a butcher's shop, and gives chase. Soon several more policemen have joined the pursuit. But the chase does not turn out as the policemen expect.

A rich man rewards a tramp for defending him from muggers with a large sum of money in the form of a single bank note. Nobody can cash the big bill the tramp is carrying and hilarity ensues.

More than a dozen shots, some less than a second, of people wearing roller skates in various settings: a young man in skates sits on a low guardrail next to a city sidewalk reading, a woman with a child shoots by, a constable skates gingerly, a man skates by in suit and vest, another cleans front steps, children skate into a room where papa and siblings sit, someone slips at the base of stairs, a man in a cowboy hat moves fast, two jovial chubby women shake hands, our man in the hat trips over a wheelbarrow, then falls again as he rounds a corner, then down goes the constable. It's a crazy day on the city sidewalks.

A noble Roman, bored with his life, sees a slave dance and they fall in love. Before they can consummate their passion, his wife has the slave killed and he drinks the same poison as she.

A piano entices anyone who comes near.