Between 1950 and 1955, Henri Langlois tried to produce, on behalf of the Cinémathèque française, several films devoted to great artists, with their cooperation, by entrusting them with virgin film stock. Wrote Langlois on the unfinished project, epic in scope: "We had the idea of asking poets, painters, scholars, writers and even repressed filmmakers [...] to make films in 16mm, with the means at hand, without taking into account any commercial concern or censorship." What precious little came of the project was eight minutes of film from Matisse and twenty-some from Marc Chagall, released at a later date.
The Quays' interest in esoteric illusions finds its perfect realization in this fascinating animated lecture on the art of anamorphosis. This artistic technique, often used in the 16th- and 17th centuries, utilizes a method of visual distortion with which paintings, when viewed from different angles, mischievously revealed hidden symbols.
Silent documentary short showcasing a fashion show in the late twenties set at the Côte d'Azur.
Documentary focusing on the film careers F.W. Murnau, Frank Borzage and William Fox and their impact on the history of cinema.
"La Gigue" (Gaumont #590) is part of the "Miss Lina Esbrard. Danseuse cosmopolite et serpentine" series of 4 films, and should not be confused with "Danse excentrique" (Gaumont #587), "Danse serpentine" (Gaumont #588, the only extant film in the series), or "Danse fantaisiste" (Gaumont #589).
"Danse fantaisiste" (Gaumont #589) is part of the "Miss Lina Esbrard. Danseuse cosmopolite et serpentine" series of 4 films, and should not be confused with "Danse excentrique" (Gaumont #587), "Danse serpentine" (Gaumont #588, the only extant film in the series), or "La Gigue" (Gaumont #590).
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.
A nervous, careless recording of a trip through India and Nepal at the beginning of the 1970s. Fleeting impressions of faces, landscapes, temples, people and things. Images that, having been captured in a ephemeral medium, proceed to fade away (although without aging), alongside the river of time.
This film shows the leaders of organizations that emerged after the Russian Revolution. It is the fragment of ‘Anniversary of the Revolution’ made by Vertov in 1918.
Neuropathology
Early Edison short showing two men fencing.
A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.
“Shows how a full carload of coal is loaded onto a vessel every thirty seconds at the great Erie Railroad Docks, Cleveland, Ohio. Great clouds of coal dust rise as each car is unloaded.”
A chronicle of the Russian Revolution of 1917, from the bourgeois democratic February Revolution to the great socialist October Revolution and the final triumph.
Kathryn Osterman was a legitimate actress who worked occasionally in the movies during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. This looks like a Mutoscope cut-down of an actuality released in 1900, "The Art of "Making Up"". In it, we see her from the rear, sitting in front of a dressing mirror, putting up her hair and powdering her face.
During his 1923 visit to Cairo, Prince Leopold III of Belgium climbed the Cheops pyramid. The film was shot by Tullio Chiarini, Italian photographer, cinematographer and correspondent in Cairo and Alexandria.
This film was made on the occasion of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Ilinden (St. Ellias Day) Rebellion. This panoramic film depicts the most significant historic figures and places situated in the Aegian, Pirin and Vardar regions.
In collaboration with Lomo, an Austrian camera company, and Mubi, a global film website, Weerasethakul was invited to make a work to launch the new LomoKino, a portable motion picture camera. Ashes juxtaposes the intimacy of his daily routine with the destruction of memories and his observations of the dark side of Thailand’s social realities.
Short about Field Marshal Paul v. Hindenburg on the occasion of his 70th birthday on 02.10.1917.
The last remaining film of Le Prince's LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera is a sequence of frames of his son, Adolphe Le Prince, playing a diatonic button accordion. It was recorded on the steps of the house of Joseph Whitley, Adolphe's grandfather.