The Magic of the Mandarin

The artist studio is decorated with a rug, a chaise lounge, 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 shirt 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-shirt. 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. He drinks, smokes a cigarette, and contemplates his work - until he falls asleep on the chaise lounge. Only then do The Three Graces stir, and tip-toe around their creator. One even dares to approach her lips to the artist's.

A photographer has a studio in which he asks women to pose in the nude or in daring clothes. Then he receives his all-male clientele, to show them (and the camera, via inserts) the results of his art. But a previous model who refused to take off her clothes, accusing him of harassment, returns with the police in tow.

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.

Three young women are smiling and playing in a lake, their nude bodies reflecting in the water, when a forest watcher appears from the wood, and chases them away. They get out of the water, pick their clothes from tree branches, and move away before putting them on. The bearded man seems to be shy, but he is chasing after them through the wood, anyway.

A man in civil clothes, and three men in army uniforms are inspecting seven women to be recruited.

An ailing woman is visited by her family doctor. This film was seized by Austrian authorities in 1911, and the fact was announced in the Wiener Zeitung, the Official Journal of Vienna.

A housemaid is cleaning a studio. When she sees a sculpture of a nude woman in life-size, lying on a couch, she starts to compare this idealized body with her own. She takes off her clothes one by one, thus revealing her own naked body, and she compares the various parts of her body with those of the statue. The master of the house enters the studio. When he sees his housemaid naked, he tells her to go into the next room, and then goes into that room himself.

Four gentlemen are talking in a beer-garden; during a short absence of one of them, who pretends to be an art lover, the others decide to make a prank on him. When he comes back, one them invites the "square" bourgeois to his home, pretexting to show him an art catalog. The men pay their drinks and leave, but the three friends convene later, and they have paid a young female model to be there, too.

A middle-aged man bare chest and wearing trousers, clears a shallow trench in the sand while a young woman draped in a long, flimsy veil looks on. The man leaves, but stays in the nearby wood at a watching distance, glancing at the girl divesting of her robe, sitting in the trench as if to sunbathe. She shifts positions a couple of times, but then the man returns, and starts covering her with sand. Unhappy, the girl gets up, picks a flask of lotion from the trench, and leaves with the man.

A woman undresses, takes a bath, gets a massage, and relaxes.

Four nude girls prance about in a small clearing in a dense wood or green garden. Two stay coyly to the left, one dances in the front with a flowing, flimsy veil, and another, far right, mimics the dancer's movements.

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.

A middle-aged woman in rural dress and a young woman in a smarter dress are picking up herbs in a forest. The workload and the sunny day call for a halt for refreshment. The young girl disrobes, and enters the nearby river in the nude, followed by the mature woman who simply fathers her long skirts up to her waist, revealing her naked thighs and white-slip covered buttocks. The camera follows them to the right, capturing the water movement, and their splashing about. (A white sunflower stands alone in the midst of the water creeks - hinting at the Production company's logo, an 8-pointed star.) A fisherman arrives and starts throwing his hook at the fish, with no results; so, he moves to the right, and throws the hook again, this time capturing the heavy mature woman who comes from behind the curtain of willows, complaining of pain in the lower of her back. A policeman in city uniform and white casket appears, to expel both the fisherman and the woman from the place.

A young woman and her maid go for a stroll in the park. The maid goes away, and the girl, siting alone in her folding bank, starts feeling the effects of the heat. After a look around to make sure that she is alone, she strips naked, and has a refreshing bath. While she is at it, a middle-aged couple approaches and decides to rob the girl's clothes. The woman strips her own, poor peasant's clothes, and dons on quickly the girl's dress; they leave in a hurry. The girl is distressed when she finds that she has only her undershirt to cover herself. A policeman wearing a white casket appears before the girl can dress, and she runs away, hunted by the policeman. Nearby, a man in a white suit and Panama hat is having a picnic with his family, greets a passing friend, and offers him some refreshment. Before they can toast, they're trample on by the fugitive girl, and the policeman close by. They all stand up and join the chase. A bearded man in a dark suit is out for a stroll in the park, ...