Gaston Velle

A magician and some assistants put up a series of posters of music hall acts in a frame. Then the magician brings each poster to life.

Inside an operating room, a surgeon performs several procedures of "modern" surgery.

Pierrot woos Columbine, who abandons Harlequin. An old witch hands Harlequin a magical flute that will make his wishes come true, whenever it is played. It is now time for Harlequin to play his tricks.

A young woman becomes pregnant and attempts to provide for her child after the father leaves her.

A woman, who tried to smuggle goods under her clothes, is brought to an excise duty office for further inspection.

Harlequin is walking in a garden with Columbine. As he moves away to the distance and leaves her on her own, Mephisto appears, from inside a well, and tries to woo her. Will Harlequin get back in time and rescue her?

An Italian movie about Othello.

A woman, in her bedroom, is putting her jewelry away. Alarmed by strange noises at her door, she hides behind her bed. A burglar enters the room and steals her jewelry box. The woman calls for help, a police officer steps in and starts to chase the thief.

A scientist concocts a potion that can turn people invisible for short periods of time. Two crooks steal the potion and go on a crime spree.

A merchant is giving a demonstration of his lifelike automatons to a bedazzled customer. Could these "larger than life" clockwork figures look too good to be true?

This is an incomplete fragment of a longer film, so doesn’t make much sense, but it’s very beautiful and colourful with plenty of fireworks, flames and fountains as well as the customary fairies, magic and dancing.

A couple perform a acrobatic dance.

A Japanese-set magic show. There is a lot of visual trickery on display, ending with an amazing effect using reverse footage and superimposing/projecting images on top of one another.

A man hides his valuables under his mattress before going to sleep, blissfully unaware of the two burglars on his roof.

Fantastic Flowers is a compilation of short silent films produced between 1906 and 1920, displaying amazing colours that were applied to each frame using the Pathécolor process, or other similar stencilling techniques. Bonsoir – La Fée aux fleurs (1906) / [Bloemenvelden Haarlem] (1909) / Les Chrysanthèmes (1907) / Le Chrysanthème, roi de l’automne (1914) / [Les Tulipes] (1907) / Les Fleurs dans les jardins (1914) / L’Après-midi d’une japonaise (1920) / The Beauty Thief ([1920]) / La Fée printemps (1906) / [Het schoonste uit de natuur] (1912?) / La Culture du dahlia (1911) / [Hollandse Tulpen en Klompen] (1920?) / Fabrication des fleurs artificielles (1911) / [Bonsoir tableau] (1906)

As soon as his back is turned, Columbine is making out with Harlequin. So when he catches them at it, Gaston Séverin as Pierrot strikes her as Harlequin flees. Of course, he's terribly sorry when he thinks she's dead, and drinks.

A fairly venturesome piece of filmmaking for the era: Based on the Jules Verne story, the film utilizes a dozen cuts, irised lenses, panning shots and vivid tints to weave an intrepid and exciting story.

A fairly venturesome piece of filmmaking for the era: Based on the Jules Verne story, the film utilizes a dozen cuts, irised lenses, panning shots and vivid tints to weave an intrepid and exciting story.

A charming example of the Pathe stencil system of colour films, also using superimposition.

The town-crier summons the inhabitants of the town and they read a manifesto which is posted on a wall announcing the fact that at 4 o'clock on that day the Lord Mayor will receive bids for the building of a town clock.

An old astronomer has been transfixed by a star for a long time. He had but one thought: to travel to it, to declare his love for it! But how? A simple but ingenious solution-- A giant bubble. Velle remade the film for Italian studio Cines in the same year.

A boy is put to bed by his mother, but when she leaves the room, he pulls out a book. Dropping off to sleep, he begins to dream. The wall behind him transforms into a screen, with a portrait of Jules Verne. The boy imagines the starry night sky, with comets shooting by. The gondola of a balloon parks outside his window. He climbs aboard, ascending over a skyline and harbor.

A drunk staggers into his apartment and falls asleep. He dreams he climbs to the top of a building and flies to the moon, then falls back to earth. When he wakes, still drunk, he is in his apartment.

This has more of a clear narrative than most of the films in the set although it’s still quite odd and random compared to today’s films. There are some effectively surreal and creepy sequences in this imaginative short, such as the devil’s face appearing in an egg and spewing coins as well as the finale where our protagonist is sent to an egg-filled hell.

A little flower film by Gaston Velle.