Oneironaut: Vigil and Cognition

Dante's Inferno

March 1911 •Italian

The classic tale of Dante's journey through hell, loosely adapted from the Divine Comedy and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré. This historically important film stands as the first feature from Italy and the oldest fully-surviving feature in the world, and boasts beautiful sets and special effects that stand above other cinema of the era.

Alice in Wonderland

October 1903 •English

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.

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge

April 1924 •German

When Kriemhild, thirsty for revenge, marries to Etzel, king of the Huns, she invites King Gunther and his court to visit them, intending to finally take the life of the man responsible of her disgrace.

The Untamable Whiskers

March 1904 •French

The background of this picture represents a scene along the beautiful river Seine in Paris. A gentleman enters, and taking a blackboard from the side of the picture, he draws on it a sketch of a novelist. Then, standing in the centre, he causes the living features of his sketch to appear in the place of his own, which is utterly devoid of whiskers. The change is made so mysteriously that the eye cannot notice it until one sees quite another person in the place of the first. Again another sketch is shown on the board, this one being that of a miser; then an English cockney; a comic character; a French policeman, and last of all, the grinning visage of Mephistopheles. It is almost impossible to give this film a more definite description; suffice it to say that it is something entirely new in motion pictures and is sure to please. (Méliès Catalog)

The Living Playing Cards

January 1905 •French

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

November 1907 •English

The Doll

December 1919 •German

The misadventures of an effete young man who must get married in order to inherit a fortune. He opts to purchase a remarkably lifelike doll and marry it instead, not realizing that the doll is actually the puppet-maker’s flesh-and-blood daughter in disguise.

Witch's Cradle

January 1944 •English

The surrealist film shows repetitive imagery involving a string fashioned in a bizarre, almost spiderweb-like pattern over the hands of several individuals, most notably an unnamed young woman and an elderly gentleman. The film also shows a shadowy darkness and people filmed at odd angles, an exposed human heart, and other occult symbols and ritualistic imagery which evokes an unsettling and dream-like aura. Considered an unfinished film.

The Diabolic Tenant

January 1909 •French

A man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.

The Mysterious Retort

September 1906 •French

A wizard sleeps at a table in his well-appointed sitting room. From a drawer in the table, a snake appears.

Bluebeard

July 1901 •French

A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.

The Hilarious Posters

April 1906 •French

A wall full of advertising posters comes to life.

The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon

June 1907 •French

In this film, Méliès concocts a combination fairy- and morality tale about the foolishness of trying to look too deeply into the workings of an unstable and inscrutable universe. At a medieval school, an old astronomer begins to teach a class of young men, all armed with telescopes, about the art of scrutinising an imminent eclipse. When a mechanical clock strikes twelve, all the young men rush to the windows and fix their telescopes on the heavens.

The Man with the Rubber Head

December 1901 •French

A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.

The One-Man Band

January 1900 •French

A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.

The Four Troublesome Heads

November 1898 •French

One of the greatest of black art pictures. The conjurer appears before the audience, with his head in its proper place. He then removes his head, and throwing it in the air, it appears on the table opposite another head, and both detached heads sing in unison. The conjurer then removes it a third time. You then see all three of his heads, which are exact duplicates, upon the table at one time, while the conjurer again stands before the audience with his head perfectly intact, singing in unison with the three heads upon the table. He closes the picture by bowing himself from the stage.

Above the Lake

May 1995 •Russian

Avant-garde homage to pre-revolution Russian silent movies, and to the poet Aleksandr Blok.

Historia de un ciprés

January 1960 •Spanish

A man with an umbrella emerges from his grave to be momentarily reunited with his lost loved one.

One-Eyed Likho

May 1916 •Russian

The plot is the embodiment of everyday belief about the impact of a certain evil force on a person. The action develops in a peasant environment.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

March 1910 •English

An early version of the classic, based more on the 1902 stage musical than on the original novel.