Serpentine Dance

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.

Passers-by on a street market in Marseille.

Based on a real event that occurred between two deputies, in Chapultepec Park.

The film is a panorama shot-scene lasting just under a minute. The panorama film, as coined by Lumière, is a moving-camera shot--usually accomplished by placing the camera on a moving transport, such as a boat or train.

A mother takes her children for a walk, lifts her baby girl out of the buggy and gently sets her down to the ground. She then moves a few steps away and calls her name, to demonstrate that her baby can walk.

In a grove, a small boy and a small girl are dancing together.

A stationary camera looks across a busy corner toward a store front marked "The Divan." The words "des fees" are beneath. A cortege of Arabs, about 20 persons in the party, walk past; the dignitaries are in front, attended by men with horns and drums. Coming in the other direction are local Swiss, who pay little attention, and a group of native-garbed Africans. The dozen or so well-dressed denizens of Geneva who are sitting on the steps of the Divan take it all in.

Children enjoying the seaside.

Several shots of the carnival in Nice, floats and parade costumes, passing along the crowded streets.

Nero, seated on a throne, has slaves summoned. Each drinks poison and dies, the second even though he can see the corpse of his predecessor.

Circulation of passers-by and cars in the paved street on the occasion of the Tsar's coronation.

Short film by Lumière of people disembarking from a boat at the port of nice.

A stationary camera looks west across Niagara Falls from the United States' side (the Niagara River rushes toward the falls from right to left). Virtually overlooking the falls and surrounded by the swift current not far from the camera is a small island where six or eight tourists watch the water, talk, and move about.

A horse-drawn carriage stops in front of a villa. The residents greet the newcomers, as the coach driver unloads baggages.

Four roped men descend through the seracs of the Mer de Glace. One of them falls and has to be hoisted. The shot belongs to a collection of scenes that were presented together as a kind of travelogue film under the title of 'Voyages animés' in a diorama pavilion in the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1900. The mountaineering scenes in this series include four scenes in the Mer de Glace and one in the Meije glacier. These five scenes, under a minute long, are the first mountaineering images ever filmed. Several of the 'Voyages animés' scenes were included in the Lumière catalog in 1901 under the title of 'À travers la France'.

Several shots of the carnival in Nice, floats and parade costumes, passing along the crowded streets.