An astronomer has a terrifying dream.
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.
In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.
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.
A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head.
A traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.
A group of travellers go into a house for protection. Little do they know, it is filled with ghosts who make unusual things happen to them.
A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed, and a battle ensues in hilarious comic fashion.
A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out? Méliès based the art direction on engravings by Gustave Doré. First known example of a fairy-tale adapted to film, and the first film to use dissolves to go from one scene to another.
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.
A man is increasingly unnerved by a mysterious portrait. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, the film is thought to have run about 45 minutes long, but only an 8 minute fragment is known to have survived.
A pig dressed in fancy clothes flirts with a pretty girl, but she humiliates him and tears off his suit; she then makes him dance for her affections.
The earliest surviving celluloid film, and believed to be the second moving picture ever created, was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera. It was taken in the garden of Oakwood Grange, the Whitley family house in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire (UK), possibly on 14 October 1888. The film shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince's son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley (Le Prince's mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley, and Miss Harriet Hartley walking around in circles, laughing to themselves, and staying within the area framed by the camera. The Roundhay Garden Scene was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds.
A legendary and friendly creature named Nessie lives happily in a small pond with her friend MacQuack, a rubber duck. When a rich developer takes the pond and land surrounding it to build a miniature golf course, Nessie is forced to search for a new home.
A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.
After a 13-year-old student disappears without a trace for a week and suddenly reappears, his mother and teachers are confronted with existential questions that change their whole view of life.
A thirty-second long stop-motion animated piece intended to encourage the audience to send matches to British troops fighting the Boer War.
A priest is officiating at a convent, when suddenly he is transformed into the devil, who frightens away the nuns and turns the place into pandemonium.
The Lumière catalog sold this title as 13 individual, one-scene films, allowing exhibitors to choose which films they wanted to purchase and how to arrange them in their programs. Lumière catalog no. 933 through 945.
He sits asleep at a bare table; old witch enters, raps three times, then disappears; cavalier sees table spread for a sumptuous repast. Mephistopheles appears; then the old witch, who suddenly changes to a beautiful young girl. The changes and magical appearances are startling and instantaneous.
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.
The mysterious Count Orlok summons Thomas Hutter to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen. After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok's servant, Knock, prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.
12-year-old Conor encounters an ancient tree monster who proceeds to help him cope with his mother's terminal illness and being bullied in school.
An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.
Hannah, a phobic and hypochondriac young woman living alone in her mansion, spends her time chasing dust with her army of rags. Her servant Louise, helps her in this permanent mania. Everything must be clean... Clean... Clean... Tirelessly, the young heroine is always looking for a miracle product. After receiving a promising new disinfectant, without restraint, she tries it on herself, but this experience transports her to an extraordinary world.
Driving through the desert en route to San Francisco, Sebastian has a chance encounter with Helena, a mysterious and attractive hitchhiker. Together they embark on a journey to the unknown, testing the boundaries of reality along the way.
A terrible industrial accident changes little Dinki's life forever. Now Dinki's fate may ride on the wings of her eccentric friend Birdboy, a misfit who hides in the forest lost in his fantasies.
The Big Bad Wolf stalks Little Bo Peep and steals one of her sheep. She enlists Little Boy Blue and a dancing scarecrow to assist her and her mischievous black sheep in rescuing it. Singing, dancing, hilarity and impalement ensue.
A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.
A genre breaking psychological fantasy film, following one of 12 archetypes, The Hero, attempting to complete his quest of self discovery. In this world devoid of life apart from these 12 archetypes, Hero finds he is left with only one final person to interview. The proud, excentric and boastful Jester, or as he prefers to be called, "Alakazam". With the clash Hero's need for control and order clashing with Alakzam's careless free nature, the two character's are forced to questions their own personas and nature.
A young girl is playing on some waste ground when she finds a pencil with a face. Whatever she draws with the pencil becomes real. Just an ordinary day.
CREMASTER 4 (1994) adheres most closely to the project's biological model. This penultimate episode describes the system's onward rush toward descension despite its resistance to division. The logo for this chapter is the Manx triskelion - three identical armored legs revolving around a central axis. Set on the Isle of Man, the film absorbs the island's folklore ...
When her imaginary friend is kidnapped, Olivia has to go on an epic quest to get him back.
The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search for home.
A miniature AI hologram, Maiko, is programmed to be utterly devoted to her teenage owner. But when he gets a real girlfriend, her passions may prove to be too large for her container.
Katie receives a distressing phone call from an unknown source that is abruptly disconnected. Fearing someone is in danger, she desperately tries to contact family members. Based on the short story from the Master of Macabre, this twisting tale will leave viewers in suspense until the very end in true Stephen King fashion.
This is the story of the beautiful young Pervirella. Set in the mythical English land of Condon, the grotesque, power-mad Queen Victoria builds a wall around the country and establishes a "Monarchy of Terror." Intellectuals and "pervs" are prosecuted and killed, or driven underground to form the "Cult of Perv." Their leader, the Demon Nanny gives birth to a possible savior, then dies. The infant Pervirella grows to maturity with supernatural speed and shows amazing abilities, including raging nymphomania whenever her magical necklace is removed. Pervirella is sought by various rebels, agents of Victoria, the Cult of Perv, and a trio of witches. Eventually she teams up with Amicus Reilly, a James Bond spoof played to stiff, campy perfection by the late David Warbeck. Wild adventures ensue!