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How It Feels to Be Run Over | Cecil Hepworth | ★★★★★
Ground-breaking, suspenseful, and formally elegant, Hepworth’s short is a blackly comic gem. In it, a horse-drawn carriage slowly approaches from the distance, but passes by on the right-hand side. However, it is followed by a motor car travelling much more quickly, which proceeds to drive straight in to the camera, introducing us to the titular feeling in the process.
Hepworth’s well-made, deliciously macabre trick film sees a motor car approaching from the distance, its passengers waving to the camera. However, as it gets nearer, frivolity suddenly comes to an end when it unaccountably explodes, sending its occupants flying high into the sky. A nearby bobby-on-the-beat—consummately professional—takes it upon himself to catalogue their strewn body parts.
A man attempts to retire for the evening, but finds the act of undressing all but impossible. With each piece of clothing he removes, another magically appears to replace it, leaving him evermore irate. Brilliant editing and a wonderfully timed central performance combine to quite magical effect, in Méliès's hugely entertaining madcap farce.
Catarina Bartho, in frilly white dress and bonnet, performs a speedway dance, superimposed against footage of the Whirlpool Rapids of Niagara Falls. As the waters crash and flow behind her, she hops and twirls and tiptoes across their surface to delightful effect.
Addition and Subtraction | Georges Méliès | ★★★
As Seen Through a Telescope | G.A. Smith | ★★★
Avenue de l'Opéra | Alice Guy | ★★★
Champs de Mars | James H. White | ★★★
The Christmas Dream | Georges Méliès | ★★★
The Clown and the Alchemist | J. Stuart Blackton | ★★★
The Cook's Revenge | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Palace | James H. White | ★★★
The Enchanted Drawing | J. Stuart Blackton | ★★★
A Fantastical Meal | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Faust and Marguerite | Edwin S. Porter | ★★★
The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Grandma's Reading Glass | G.A. Smith | ★★★
How He Missed His Train | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Kobelkoff | Anon | ★★★
Let Me Dream Again | G.A. Smith | ★★★
The Magical Book | Georges Méliès | ★★★
The One-Man Band | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Palace of Electricity | James H. White | ★★★
Panorama of Eiffel Tower | James H. White | ★★★
The Rajah's Dream | James H. White | ★★★
Scene from the Elevator Ascending Eiffel Tower | James H. White | ★★★
A Storm at Sea | James H. White | ★★★
The Triple Conjurer and the Living Head | Georges Méliès | ★★★
Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel | Edwin S. Porter | ★★★
Uncle Josh's Nightmare | Edwin S. Porter | ★★★
Up-to-Date Spiritualism | Georges Méliès | ★★★
An Animated Luncheon | Edwin S. Porter | ★★
At the Photographer's | Alice Guy | ★★
Attack on a China Mission | James Williamson | ★★
Capture of Boer Battery by British | James H. White | ★★
The Doctor and the Monkey | Georges Méliès | ★★
Eight Girls in a Barrel | Georges Méliès | ★★
Hamlet, Duel Scene with Laertes | Clément Maurice | ★★
The Magician | Edwin S. Porter | ★★
Messrs Lumb and Co Leaving the Works, Huddersfield | Mitchell & Kenyon | ★★
The Mystic Swing | Edwin S. Porter | ★★
Rough Sea | Anon | ★★
Searching Ruins on Broadway, Galveston, for Dead Bodies | Albert E. Smith | ★★
Sherlock Holmes Baffled | Arthur Marvin | ★★
Spanish Bullfight | Lumière Brothers | ★★
Spiders on a Web | G.A. Smith | ★★
20,000 Employees Entering Lord Armstrong's Elswick Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne | Mitchell & Kenyon | ★★
Why Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce | James H. White | ★★
The Wizard, the Prince and the Good Fairy | Georges Méliès | ★★
