1900s

Il Cinema Ritrovato wrote:
Alfred Machin started at Pathé in 1908, in the department called “Service de Voyage”. Its staff had their travel expenses covered by the company and were paid per film accepted (“bande accepté”) so it was a kind of freelancing. The frequency of hunting films, especially from distant countries, is some indication of the popularity of this genre a hundred years ago. According to the Pathé catalogue, Machin was also responsible for Chasse à L’hippopotame, Chasse à l’aigrette, Chasse à la giraffe, Chasse au marabout, Chasse aux singes, and Chasse aux éléphants.Read More »

Wikipedia wrote:
The Strike (French: La Grève) is a 1904 French silent short film directed by Ferdinand Zecca and distributed in France by Pathé Frères. The film depicts a strike in a factory violently repressed by the Gendarmerie.Read More »

imdb:
Deep into a vast cavern of the pitch-black inferno, a couple of professional dancers demonstrate the cakewalk that is currently so much in vogue, and now, everyone in the once-gloomy underworld is doing the crazy dance. Who is the best?Read More »

Quote:
The artist studio is decorated with a rug, a chaise longue, a small table, a plinth, a couple of copies of classic sculptures, a vase with flowers, a few prints on the walls, and on the wood paneled lower half of the wall, an 8-pointed star [Saturn-Film’s logo]. The artist is wearing a white shift over his grey trousers, shirt and necktie, and he is wearing black shoes. With hammer and chisel, he applies the last touches on his last piece of sculpture – the three graces, standing nude on a rectangular podium covered with a white bed-shit. He steps back, contemplates his work, and rejoices on the beauty he has achieved. He goes out momentarily, and brings a bottle of champagne and a glass; before drinking, he makes a toast to his finished statue.Read More »

Quote:
Another boring evening at the Baron’s home; he sits and reads a magazine, while his wife sits across the reading table, reading a newspaper. The housemaid enters, bringing a message from Franz, who convenes the Baron to an urgent meeting at the Club. Excusing himself, and thoroughly kissing his wife good-evening, the Baron leaves – to meet some lady of the night in the club’s private room, with champagne and a sofa for two. At home, the Baroness gets bored, until she has an idea, soon put to practice. She sends a man a letter, signed Divine Lola, giving him rendez-vous at a discreet pension. The modern Eve is not taking her husband’s infidelities sitting down. She lays in her undershirt on a bed inviting her lover in, in a long embrace.Read More »

Quote:
Four Arab men in white burnouses, two women in grey, and one female cook in striped burnous, are sitting in front of a cave in a forest path. (From a piece of grey cloth over the entrance to the cave, two 8-pointed white stars hang incongruously: the Production company’s logo.) A pan hangs from a tripod. A girl in a colorful dress arrives with a Bucovina shepherd dog, and starts dancing in front of the men. First, half of the men go, then the others and the girl leave. Only one man stays, taking care of the food being prepared in the pot. Snivelling from their hiding place, a robber jumps him, and knocks him out with a blow. Three thugs join him, and they take whatever they find in the cave (guns). The dog comes back, and sits a while near the fallen cook. Read More »

Quote:
A man in civil clothes, and three men in army uniforms are inspecting seven women to be recruited. They are taking and inscribing in a ledger book the women’s height, breast, thigh and ankle measurements. To do this, they all have to get topless, except one. They enter one by one, but they leave in formation, except one who strays away and remains in the room. After she is alone with one of the officers, he kisses her, and takes her to another room.Read More »

Quote:
Two women get undressed to take a bath in a lake. When a fisherman throws out his hook to catch some fish, he accidentally puts his hook in one of the women. A policeman appears to seemingly put the fisherman away.Read More »

Quote:
In front of a round tent, a pasha is sitting on the grass; to the right of the tent’s door, covered with a patterned blanket, is a flagpole – on top of which is an 8-pointed star [Saturn-Film’s logo]. The pasha claps hands, and a servant comes to his bid. The lord is going to smoke from his water-pipe while he buys some new slave girls. The servant calls the seller and his two henchmen, who bring forth four girls in patterned burnooses. The first is totally undressed [facing the Arab, not the camera], and sent into the tent; the next girl gets topless, and also sent into the tent; the third is forced to undress by the henchmen, and also sent inside. The fourth, apparently a younger girl, is dismissed by the Arab after showing her small, firm breasts, and she goes back with the henchmen. Follows an argument over the price, and finally the slave master goes away, happy. The servant must help the pasha up, and the lord goes to his tent.Read More »