Barcelona Park at Twilight

Napoleon

A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797.

Modern Sculptors

The first scene presents before the astonished eyes of the spectators a solid piece of marble, which the minute it is placed on a table seems to take life, and one can follow a snake-like line branding on the polished face of the stone the name of the house of Pathé Frères. As soon as this stone has been engraved, as by magic, a handsome young lady appears with a huge lump of clay covered with a cloth. As soon as the cloth is removed from the soft mass it starts whirling and turning as if stricken mad, and one is asking one's self what all the contentions are going to lead to, when the vague shape of an animal not yet discernible seems to appear, and before one has time to make one's mind as to the category of brutes to which it belongs one sees the form of a remarkably well made orang-utan modelled out of the clay, who calmly smokes his pipe. Then the statue is removed by the same winning young lady and another covered block of the same substance is carried forward.

Diabolical Physics

The devil performs his magical powers.

The Fire

A film based on Gabriele D'Annunzio's novel The Flame. Pina Menichelli plays a vamp who ruins a painter's life just for the fun of it.

The Bewitched House

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.

The Charmer

A magician charms a caterpillar and turns it into a butterfly woman. This film is a blatant remake of Georges Méliès's "La Chrysalide et le Papillon d'or" (1901).

A Trip to Jupiter

The King and his official astronomer are alone in the study viewing the heavenly bodies through the monstrous telescope. They go out on the balcony and the gay old ruler is much absorbed in the phenomenon, and spends some time in studying the stars and planets. The evening has been well spent with the many mysteries which have made such a deep impression upon the King's mind that they are still with him in his dreams. (Moving Picture World synopsis)

Andalusian Superstition

A woman imagines the revenge of a gypsy that she sent away. This piece is told in multiple scenes, in an increasingly artificial world, as the venue shifts from a realistic courtyard to a wild, stagebound prison in which various stage monsters appear.

Metamorphoses

A female magician presents several impressive metamorphoses, combining stop-motion animation and camera tricks.

The Electric Hotel

An enthusiastic young couple is astounded with modern technology's giant leaps in the fascinating field of electricity.

A New Way of Traveling

Steampunk fantasia of interplanetary travel and submarine life.

Chrysanthemums

Rising from a stage are two vases which separate to reveal a female dancer behind each of the vases. They create magical circles of flowers from which other women emerge. The dancers construct an elegant floral display, in the middle of which a miniature dancer performs. Another circle of flowers is brought forward on the stage, toward the camera, and in the circle are shown a series of women. The original pair of dancers conclude by twirling their parasols.

Old Toledo

Fascinating views of Toledo: Bridges, elaborately decorated halls and other architectural highlights that appear to date from as early as the 8th century.

The Royal Tigress

"Tigre Reale" (1916) was the film that consolidated Frau Menichelli's stardom, a film more than suitable for her performing skills and silent idiosyncrasy that any silent diva would kill to star in… In "Tigre Reale", Frau Menichelli performs the part of Frau Natka, a Russian countess with a troublesome past and an uncertain future. She was married to a revolutionary and the matrimony ended in tragedy. She likes to flirt with men but due to her traumatic sentimental past, she doesn't allow herself attachments. That is until she meets a young diplomat who will help her to make up her mind and exorcize her old sentimental traumas.

Music, Forward!

“Music Forward!” is the order given by a lady in Colonial costume, and in march a group of five musicians, working industriously at their instruments. The directress stands them in a row, and taking the head off each, throws it onto a huge music staff and each becomes a note of the scale. The whole bodies appear again, after which the manipulator seems to wrap them up in a large sheet of music, which is then shown to contain nothing. The paper is rolled up again, and a cane is held, perpendicularly, in a horizontal position to the sheet.

Reception of His Majesty Alfonso XIII in Barcelona

1904 journalistic actuality.