Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland 1903

6.00

This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.

1903

Explosion of a Motor Car

Explosion of a Motor Car 1900

6.10

An early trick film where a car explodes and body parts fall from the sky. A policeman witnesses and attempts to piece the remains back together.

1900

A Day in the Hayfields

A Day in the Hayfields 1904

5.30

Documentary on the process of hay-making, from the cutting of the grass to the stacking of the hay.

1904

How It Feels to Be Run Over

How It Feels to Be Run Over 1900

5.90

As the camera looks down an open road, a horse and carriage approaches, and passes by to one side of the field of view. Soon afterwards, an automobile comes up the road, straight towards the camera. As it gets nearer, the occupants start to wave frantically, but can a collision be avoided?

1900

That Fatal Sneeze

That Fatal Sneeze 1907

5.71

As an older man and a youth are eating at the table, the older man decides to amuse himself by using pepper to make the boy sneeze. Later, the boy retaliates by sneaking into the older man's room and putting pepper in his handkerchief, hairbrush, and clothing. But things quickly get out of hand when the sneezing that results begins to disrupt the whole town.

1907

Lily of the Alley

Lily of the Alley 1924

1

Bill and Lily are newly married. Bert works as a tea salesman and is of a naturally cheery disposition. Over time however, worries about the security of his job and income prey on his mind and he frets over not being able to provide for Lily. With his worries heightened by the fear that he is about to go blind, he falls into a deep depression .....

1924

The Fugitive Futurist

The Fugitive Futurist 1924

6.00

A habitual loser at the race-track is approached by a man who claims to be an inventor with a machine that can see into the future; but can it predict the winner of tomorrow's race? And just whom is the “inventor” trying to escape anyway?

1924

A Seaside Introduction

A Seaside Introduction 1911

1

'Brighton. Dude searches for girl's lost shoes and stockings.' (British Film Catalogue)

1911

Helen of Four Gates

Helen of Four Gates 1920

4.70

HELEN OF FOUR GATES was made in Hebden Bridge in 1920 by silent film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth, based on a popular novel of the same name. Reportedly highly successful when it first opened, the film would later fall into obscurity, with all copies believed to be destroyed. In 2007, a print was discovered in a vault in Canada.

1920

Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor

Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor 1910

5.00

Funny how we think of the loutish behaviour of some of today's teens as a modern-day phenomenon. Here, in a short film more than one hundred years old, we see two tearaways terrorising a bed-ridden old lady, sabotaging a number of honest workmen as they go about their daily work, vandalising a bakery and taking a vehicle without consent - all in the space of six frenetic minutes.

1910

Hamlet

Hamlet 1913

3.70

Hamlet is a 1913 British silent drama film directed by Hay Plumb and starring Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Gertrude Elliot and Walter Ringham.

1913

Salome Mad

Salome Mad 1909

3.00

A man is obsessed by the 'Salome' dance.

1909

The Basilisk

The Basilisk 1914

1

A mesmerist, obsessed with putting a beautiful woman under his power, hypnotizes her to try to force her to kill her fiancé. His plans are altered with the appearance of a deadly serpent.

1914

Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River

Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River 1899

7.00

Filmed from the front of a steam launch in a late Victorian summer, this film offers a glimpse of our 19th century ancestors enjoying their leisure time. The River Thames is crowded with pleasure boats as we glide under Henley Bridge. Ladies in white lace dresses recline under parasols as gentlemen with impressive moustaches take the oars. But even in this antiquated idyllic scene, advertising hoardings on the riverbank try to persuade the moneyed classes to part with their cash. The technique of placing the camera on a moving vehicle, here a boat, was one of the most popular film effects in the very early cinema period. The waterside panorama method employed here was particularly popular for travelogues. Cecil Hepworth, who made this film, was convinced at the time that the cinema would prove to be used mostly for news reporting, but said that work such as this "showed some slight perception of scenic value". That makes this almost an early art film. -BFI

1899