The Spark That Lit the Fire (1890–1921)

Every journey has a beginning. In the premiere season of A Film Podyssey, we’ll travel back in time to the earliest days of cinema, when inventors, illusionists, and storytellers were still exploring what motion pictures could do. From the flickering fantasies of Georges Méliès to the explosive epics of D. W. Griffith, we’ll discover how a curious little novelty became one of the world’s most powerful art forms.

000 • Pre-Cinema

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View from the Window at Le Gras (Nicéphore Niépce, 1826)

Boulevard du Temple (Louis Daguerre, 1839)

The Horse in Motion (Eadweard Muybridge, 1878)

L’homme Machine (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1885)

Roundhay Garden Scene (Louis Le Prince, 1888)

London’s Trafalgar Square (Wordsworth Donisthorpe & William Carr Crofts, 1890)

Horse and Rider Jump Over an Obstacle (Ottomar Anschütz, 1888)

Pauvre Pierrot (Émile Reynaud, 1892)

001 • Edison Studios

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Monkeyshines (William K. L. Dickson, c. 1890)

Dickson Greeting (Dickson, 1891)

Blacksmith Scene (Dickson, 1893)

Leonard-Cushing Fight (Dickson, 1894)

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (Dickson, 1895)

The Barbershop (Dickson, 1894)

Fire Rescue Scene (Dickson, 1894)

Sandow (Dickson, 1894)

Fred Ott’s Sneeze (Dickson, 1894)

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (Alfred Clark, 1895)

002 • The Lumière Brothers

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Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (Louis Lumière, 1895)

Baby’s Meal (Lumière, 1895)

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (Lumière, 1896)

Panorama of the Grand Canal (Alexandre Promio, 1896)

The Pyramids (Promio, 1897)

Demolition of a Wall (Lumière, 1895)

The Waterer Watered (Lumière, 1895)

The Lover in the Sack (Georges Hatot, 1897)

Pistol Duel (Gabriel Veyre, 1896)

The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (Lumière & Hatot, 1898)

003 • The Cinema of Attractions

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Screening I: European Film

The Cabbage Fairy (Alice Guy, 1896 & 1900)

Bedtime for the Bride (Albert Kirchner [Léar], 1896)

Wintergarten Program (Max Skladanowsky, 1895)

Rough Sea at Dover (Birt Acres, 1895)

Come Along, Do! (Robert W. Paul, 1898)

Screening II: American Film

Young Griffo vs. Battling Charles Barnett (Otway Latham, 1895)

The Kiss (William Heise, 1896)

Tearing Down the Spanish Flag (J. Stuart Blackton, 1898)

The Haverstraw Tunnel (director unknown, 1897)

Rip Van Winkle (William K. L. Dickson, 1896 / 1903)

004.1 • Georges Méliès

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Screening I: Trick Films

The Vanishing Lady (1896)

The One-Man Band (1900)

A Mysterious Portrait (1899)

The Triple Conjurer and the Living Head (1900)

The Man with the Rubber Head (1901)

Screening II: Story Films

The Astronomer’s Dream (1898)

Cinderella (1898)

The Dreyfus Affair (1899)

004.2 • A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)

005 • The Brighton School

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Screening I: George Albert Smith

The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)

Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900)

As Seen Through a Telescope (1900)

The Sick Kitten (1903)

Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903)

Screening II: James Williamson

The Big Swallow (1901)

Attack on a China Mission (1900)

Stop Thief! (1901)

Fire! (1901)

Our New Errand Boy (1905)

006.1 • Edwin S. Porter, Part I

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Screening I: Early Narrative Film

Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)

The Finish of Bridget McKeen (1901)

Another Job for the Undertaker (1901)

The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)

Screening II: Life of an American Fireman (1903)

006.2 • The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)

006.3 • Edwin S. Porter, Part II

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Screening I: The Kleptomaniac (Porter, 1905)

Screening II: Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Porter & Wallace McCutcheon, Sr., 1906)

007 • The American Film Industry

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Screening I: Wallace McCutcheon Sr.

Photographing a Female Crook (1904)

The Lost Child (1904)

From Leadville to Aspen: A Hold-Up in the Rockies (1906)

Screening II: J. Stuart Blackton

The Enchanted Drawing (1900)

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)

The Haunted Hotel (1907)

008 • The British Film Industry

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Screening I: Robert W. Paul and Others

The Countryman and the Cinematograph (Paul, 1901)

The ‘?’ Motorist (Walter R. Booth, 1906)

A Daring Daylight Burglary (Frank Mottershaw, 1903)

Desperate Poaching Affray (William Haggar, 1903)

Runaway Match (Alf Collins, 1903)

Screening II: Rescued by Rover (Cecil Hepworth & Lewin Fitzhamon, 1905)

009.1 • The French Film Industry: Gaumont

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Screening I: Alice Guy

The Consequences of Feminism (Guy, 1906)

Madame’s Cravings (Guy, 1906)

A Four-Year-Old Heroine (Guy & Louis Feuillade, 1907)

Screening II: The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (Alice Guy, 1906)

009.2 • The French Film Industry: Pathé

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Screening I: Ferdinand Zecca

History of a Crime (Zecca, 1901)

The Strike (Zecca, 1904)

The Physician of the Castle (director unknown, 1908)

Screening II: Max’s Film Debut (Max Linder & Louis J. Gasnier, 1910)

010 • The Story of the Kelly Gang (Charles Tait, 1906)

011.1 • D. W. Griffith at Biograph

Screening I: The Lonely Villa (1909)

Screening II: The Lonedale Operator (1911)

011.2 • A Corner in Wheat (D. W. Griffith, 1909)

012 • Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber

Screening I: Falling Leaves (Guy-Blaché, 1912)

Screening II: Suspense (Weber & Phillips Smalley, 1913)

013 • Thomas H. Ince (and the Move to Hollywood)

Screening I: The Lighthouse Keeper (Ince, 1911)

Screening II: The Invaders (Ince & Francis Ford, 1912)

014 • Tillie’s Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett, 1914)

015 • The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (André Calmettes & Charles Le Bargy, 1908)

016.1 • Albert Capellani

Screening I: The Bride of the Haunted Castle (1910)

Screening II: The Terror (1911)

016.2 • Germinal (Albert Capellani, 1913)

017 • Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913–1914)

Screening I: In the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913)

Screening II: Juve vs. Fantômas (1913)

018 • The Student of Prague (Stellan Rye, 1913)

019 • Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (Yevgeni Bauer, 1913)

020 • Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914)

021 • The Danish Film Industry

Screening I: The White Slave Trade (August Blom, 1910)

Screening II: The Abyss (Urban Gad, 1910)

022 • The Mysterious X (Benjamin Christensen, 1914)

023 • A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström, 1917)

024 • Early Asian Cinema

Screening I: Chūshingura (Shōzō Makino, 1910–1917)

Screening II: Raja Harishchandra (Dadasaheb Phalke, 1913)

025 • The Birth of a Nation (D. W. Griffith, 1915)

026 • Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916)

027 • The Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille, 1915)

028 • The Hollywood Star System

Screening I: The Poor Little Rich Girl (Maurice Tourneur, 1917)

Screening II: Wild and Woolly (John Emerson, 1917)

029 • Broken Blossoms (D. W. Griffith, 1919)

030.1 • Charlie Chaplin

Screening I: The Tramp (1915)

Screening II: The Immigrant (1917)

030.2 • The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)