The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

1896-06-30 | fr

Swing, Monkey, Swing

A scarce and seldom seen cartoon from 1937 with excellent hot jazz and containing caricatures of Cab Calloway, Ted Lewis and Bessie Smith.

1937-09-10 | en

Railway Station

Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec (Station, 1980) portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.

1980-01-01 | pl

Zombiefication

The ultimate manual when it comes to the proper handling of the living dead. Recommended behavioural patterns in case of imminent Zombie epidemics are explained in comprehensible steps and vividly executed.

2010-08-31 | de

Farmer Al Falfa's Ape Girl

The Farmer is abducted by a capering Jungle Goddess. As pre-Code as a Terrytoon ever got. Most animation is by Frank Moser; with him are Art Babbitt, Jerry Shields, Bill Tytla and others.

1932-08-06 | en

Danemon Ban: The Monster Exterminator

The boozy mercenary of the title, based on the actual historical figure of Naoyuki Ban (1567-1615), attempts to rid a haunted castle of spooks.

1935-01-27 | ja

How Animated Cartoons Are Made

Wallace Carlson walks viewers through the production of an animated short at Bray Studios.

1919-09-06 | en

My Friend Friedrich

My Friend Friedrich opens on awkward, bespectacled Columbia student Nate having a heart to heart on the phone with his mother. Then, in a philosophy class, he almost succeeds in landing a date by lobbing an illustrated invitation at his love interest, Emma. All goes awry when a taller, more confident, bespectacled Columbia student cuts him off at the knees. So far, so very New York student film, but a conceit arrives to distinguish this story of Ivy League dating woes: the ghost of Friedrich Nietzsche appears before Nate to guide him towards self-actualization.

2003-01-01 | en

The Pawnshop

A pawnbroker's assistant deals with his grumpy boss, his annoying co-worker and some eccentric customers as he flirts with the pawnbroker's daughter, until a perfidious crook with bad intentions arrives at the pawnshop.

1916-10-02 | en

The Count

A tailor's apprentice burns Count Broko's clothes while ironing them and the tailor fires him. Later, the tailor discovers a note explaining that the count cannot attend a dance party, so he dresses as such to take his place; but the apprentice has also gone to the mansion where the party is celebrated and bumps into the tailor in disguise…

1916-09-04 | en

Bloomer Smokes Opium

A series of trick film hallucinations and scary doubling effects result when Patachon smokes an opium cigarette.

1913-10-17 | it

La marchetta

2013-03-02 | it

Caminandes: Gran Dillama

A young llama named Koro discovers that the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence).

2013-11-22 | en

Caminandes: Llama Drama

Koro wants to get to the other side of the road.

2013-02-10 | en

Die Bauten Adolf Hitlers

Nazi Third Reich propaganda film that used architecture as a statement about "racial accomplishment," and so called "racial superiority." Hitler claimed that between 1934 and 1940, the Nazi rule of Germany had produced architectural uniqueness, and this film was produced to shown to attempt to validate that. The opening montage gives a survey of earlier Gothic and Baroque structures in the country as an example of "architectural superiority" that the German race was said to be the sole inventor of; then moves on to deride the recent construction of the Bauhaus school (with a racially motivated score of Jazz music) and an example of German "architectural decay." Then proceeds to show off buildings constructed by the Nazi and an architectural revival, to "last 1000 years," Film also spends a great of time dwelling on massive and "busy" monuments that had been erected all over the county.

1938-02-02 | en

Smith's Pony

The Smith's visit San Francisco to attend a horse show only to have their precocious daughter cause some minor comical mishaps and their over-sized canine refusing to obey commands.

1927-09-17 | en

Drug Abuse: The Chemical Tomb

The dangers of drug use by teenagers are illustrated by showing how well-dressed, happy teens are turned into slovenly, long-haired, drug-addled potheads who don't know that, according to the film's drug expert, “in high dosages, it [marijuana] parallels LSD.”

1969-01-01 | en

Interesting Ball

A red ball bounces past a cafe and a couple folks’ houses and then goes to the beach.

2014-11-03 | en

Back to the Woods

Harold and Snub are self-proclaimed big-game hunters who stop at a remote outpost. They hire two native guides to lead them into the woods, but the guides run in terror when they see a rather tame bear in the distance. Harold is annoyed that he cannot find any bears to hunt--unaware that two timid bears are closely following him. Meanwhile Snub encounters an equally tame wildcat who eats his picnic lunch. Snub sprints away. Back at the outpost, Harold twice rescues Jeanne--once from the clutches of an unwanted suitor and once from one of the bears. The grateful, gun-toting Jeanne tells Harold she wants him to be her "sweetie."

1919-05-31 | en

One Year Lease

Phone messages from the cat-loving landlord living directly above you. Ah, New York.

2014-04-17 | en