1905 - The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach

Man, everything you think is a new idea, they did it a hundred years ago at least. First off, I chose this film based on its title, not knowing much about it. It turns out it's like a 100-year old episode of Candid Camera. Or, if you want to feel cooler while watching it, a scene from Improv Everywhere.

Because that's basically what it was. A "Frenchman" confederate stranded above six inches of water decides that that's too deep for his pants and takes them off. Then he gets chased through town by cops, who are also probably confederates, and random locals who decide to join in the chase unawares. They keep looking at the camera and smiling or waving into it. Eventually, when they [SPOILER] catch the Frenchman, now dressed as a woman, they parade through town with him on their shoulders, the unsuspecting Dutch civillians smiling that much more broadly at the cameras now that the man committing pantslessness was safely contained.

But they just got punked. In 1905. On camera.

1904 - The Impossible Voyage

Another Méliès sci-fi film about a trip to space. This one felt sooooper long, at just under 20 minutes. I wasn't always clear on what was happening.  For the first half of the film I thought it was about how much of a pain in the ass it is to get to the airport.

But then a train flies off a cliff and into the sun. Into the sun's open mouth, in fact, and the sun belches goodness knows what as a result.....

... exactly the same gag that the Méliès ripoff used 4 years later with the moon. And here I thought at least that much was original.

The film _might_ reveal some beliefs that are surprising given that they're new enough to be on film. The fact that the trip back to earth is achieved by falling off a high enough cliff; the way someone uses dried wood to make a fire so he can melt some ice while he's on the surface of the sun. But maybe this was more soft sci-fi than hard sci-fi, even in its time. 

1903 - The Great Train Robbery

World's first Western, The Great Train Robbery. While the previous films mostly used special effects to bemuse the audience or inspire wonder in them, this film uses special effects to have a bandit bash a man's skull in with a rock and throw him off a train.

The dummy was a much better actor than most of the actual humans when it came to death scenes, though. The humans mostly died like this:

By the end of the film, [SPOILER ALERT] all of the bandits are dead, and justice seems to have been done. Then it cuts to probably the first close up shot of anyone that I've seen yet. And the shot is bizarre: One of the now dead bandits stares at you, the audience, as he slowly fires shots from his revolver until after it's been emptied. Then the film ends.

1902 - A Trip to The Moon

This time I watched the real one, which was way better. None of the matte paintings in the 1908 ripoff gave anywhere near the sense of depth that this one does:

Which may not seem like a big deal to you, but after watching the films listed below, I was _stunned_ by how good this shot looked.

Also, even in 1902, Women were integral to the space program, loading the launch capsule and then breaking the fourth wall:

[Edit: Oh! And apparently they recreated the filming of this movie for the last episode of a miniseries about travelling to the moon which should be EXTREMELY RAD

1908 - Excursion to the Moon

Tricked! By an inferior copy!  I watched this film thinking it was the Méliès classic, and was mightily confused when the spaceship avoided the moon's eye and went straight into its mouth.

It turns out someone at Pathé made a complete ripoff of the original. And it wasn't as good - the hand colouring was exciting until I saw how much better the colouring was 6 years earlier.

So, I guess what I watched is my first ripoff remake. I'll watch the real one next, I guess. The difference in quality should make it look AMAZING.

1901 - The Man With the India Rubber Head

First foreign film in the project, a French film by film pioneer Georges Méliès. Méliès and Thomas Edison seem to have made most of the films I'm watching for the first 10 years.

Anyway, this film is HORROR COMEDY. Because first there is a terrifying, sentient, confused giant head (Note the person inflating it to the right, for scale):

 AND THEN (spoiler) A CLOWN COMES IN AND DOES THIS TO THE FRIGHTENED HEAD:

Hilarrifying.

1901 - President McKinley Inauguration Footage

The President McKinley Inauguration Footage is fairly boring. There's a two minute video that's basically a parade of horses and swords and Americans in silly-looking old-fashioned military costumes. Then there's a fifty second video that's like a combination of two of your friends with poor seats each filming the least interesting part of a concert. Still, it was the first film in the project, I think, that includes two scenes from different angles.

I loved seeing the real-life president - and real-life regular people, going about their business - on film this early, but I probably should have watched the first or third films in the McKinley trilogy instead.