År 1905

The film recreates the final events leading to Italian unification in September 1870.

A traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.

The camera platform was on the front of a New York subway train following another train on the same track. Lighting is provided by a specially constructed work car on a parallel track. At the time of filming, the subway was only seven months old, having opened on October 27, 1904. The ride begins at 14th Street (Union Square) following the route of today's east side IRT, and ends at the old Grand Central Station, built by Cornelius Vanderbuilt in 1869. The Grand Central Station in use today was not completed until 1913.

A poor but honest man wins great wealth, and the hand of a beautiful princess, after facing a series of exciting trials in the tunnels and catacombs of ancient Araby. Guided by the mysterious Khalafar, the troupe (alongside him go some cowardly scholars) encounter skeletons, fire-breathing lizards, and mirages on their journey through the lower world.

Jones is on his way home, carrying a roll of money, when he meets a neighbor who is a notorious miser. The neighbor unexpectedly invites Jones to dinner, and serves him a large meal with plenty of wine. After dinner, the neighbor suggests a way of passing the time - and soon his real intentions become clear.

A soldier attempts to rest at an inn, but his bed plays tricks on him, never giving the poor man a chance to sleep. The inn continues to haunt him until it explodes into a pile of rubble.

A dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.

Chronophotographic short film, possibly species Protophormia terraenovae, c. 1904-1905.

The Melies version of the old Rip Van Winkle tale.

A portrait of the Dam family.

A combination gambling den and bawdy house is set up so that croupiers, patrons, prostitutes, and the owner can quickly change it all into a mercantile establishment when the cops stage a raid.

A woman sneaks up behind a seated couple, stabs the woman in the back, and makes an escape.

Felix Mayol performs a song, in colour.

A well-dressed woman leaves her home and takes a carriage to a department store. While she is in the store, she steals several items, and is caught by store employees. Meanwhile, a poor woman with two small children steals a loaf of bread out of desperation, and she is quickly caught and arrested. Both women are taken to the police station and then into court, to see what penalty each of them must face.

This is another short, simple dance number. It’s quite stunning and unusual though with a bat turning into a woman who proceeds to give us a skirt dance before disappearing into thin air. The dance is mesmerising with the skirt stunningly changing colour throughout the film.

An inventor dreams that his newly designed airship takes flight.

Early Balkan footage.

An early horror treatment of the hero's encounter with the one-eyed man-eating Cyclops.

Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.