taona 1895

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Down the gangway, photographers leave the deck of a riverboat in large numbers.

A gardener is watering his flowers, when a mischievous boy sneaks up behind his back, and puts a foot on the water hose. The gardener is surprised and looks into the nozzle to find out why the water has stopped coming. The boy then lifts his foot from the hose, whereby the water squirts up in the gardener's face. The gardener chases the boy, grips his ear and slaps him in his buttocks. The boy then runs away and the gardener continues his watering. Three separate versions of this film exist, this is the original, filmed by Louis Lumière.

In a long, diaphanous skirt, held out by her hands with arms extended, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore performs. Her dance emphasizes the movement of the flowing cloth. She moves to her right and left across an unadorned stage. Many of the prints were distributed in hand-tinted color.

Several little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.

In very bad weather and a stormy sea, a small boat manned by two men is trying to leave the harbor of La Ciotat, while several people are watching them from the nearby pier.

A father, a mother and a baby are sitting at a table, on a patio outside. Dad is feeding baby his lunch, while mum is serving tea.

A man and a kangaroo stand up in front of each other with boxing gloves, and simulate a boxing match on a theatre stage.

Pedestrian and horse-drawn vehicles traffic, across the Place des Cordeliers, in Lyon.

Félicien Trewey uses a basic prop to create comical hats and their accompanying caricatures.

A photographer has his camera all set up to take a gentleman's picture. The subject checks his face in a hand mirror, and the photographer poses him. Just as the photographer is about to take the picture, the subject gets up to look at the camera more closely. The frustrated photographer soon becomes quite impatient.

A man, holding a baby up in his hands, is standing next to a fishbowl. The baby is trying, in vain, to catch a goldfish with his bare hands.

While his aide continuously turns the handle of the bellows, keeping hot a small furnace in front of him, a blacksmith is pounding a piece of metal on an anvil, then plunges the shaft into a tub of water, causing a cloud of vapor in the process.

In the background is a house. In the foreground, a groom holds the reins of a sleek black horse that stands in profile. A tall man, dressed in a black uniform, demonstrates how to mount the horse then encourages and tries to assist a man in white. The man in white keeps falling, and soon it's apparent that he's an putting on a show. His pratfalls become more elaborate and stylish. The horse stands patient. The little groom laughs to see such sport. And finally, the man in white finds a comic accommodation. The story, though brief, has a beginning, middle, and end.

Four men stand holding what appears to be a blanket, while one wearing a hat stands watching. A sixth man then runs towards them and attempts to jump into the blanket.

Three dancers do a Russian folkloric step dance, facing the camera, in traditional clothes, fur hats and leather boots.

A small boy brings a plate of milk to a big cat, grooming itself.

Two men in white leotards and tights, and black slips over it, wrestle on a theatre stage.

A 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.