SCFZ

Choose your favorite films from 1899 (according to IMDb).

– Each person votes for up to 20 movies. Do not feel compelled to fill the maximum allowable number, only true favorites.
– Do not rank the films except the number 1, it gets two points..

Users are urged to post their provisional lists as soon as possible so that others may use them for recommendations. You may, of course, revise your lists at any point prior to the deadline.

Ballots posted by people who do not participate in other parts of the forum will not be counted.

Deadline for 1899 lists will be Monday, February 11 at approximately 1 PM Pacific Time.

Some personal faves for the year

Cendrillon -
Dreyfus 1-8 - Melies
Ilusioniste fin de siecle - Melies
King John
Kiss In The Tunnel - Smith
Ladis' Skirts nailed To A Fence -
Summoning The Spirits - Melies
Tenderloin At Night
Upside-Down, the human flies -
Wondrful Absinth - Guy

So excited for both this and '23!

I'll definitely vote for Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris, which looks impeccable on Blu-Ray. Working on a watchlist now, several other gems will surely be found, starting with your recommendations.

Le rêveil de Chrysis
La Petite Fille Et Son Chat (Louis Lumière)

Upside Down; or, The Human Flies (Walter Booth)

Cendrillon (Georges Melies)
Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence (James Bamforth)
Le Diable au Couvent (Georges Melies)

hey, again, i have none (well none i've logged, but i'm fairly sure i've seen some of these before)

i'll have at least 10 my next week. someone find me a pretty lumiere..

1. "The Kiss in the Tunnel" (George Albert Smith, 1899)
"La petite fille et son chat" (Louis Lumière, 1899)
"The Devil in a Convent " (Georges Méliès, 1899)

La petite fille et son chat - lumiere
Cendrillon - melies
The Kiss in the Tunnel - smith
Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris - lumiere
La Bonne absinthe - guy

OK I did my homework

Cinderalla
Le rêveil de Chrysis
La petite fille et son chat
Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris

Huzzah! I learned a lot with this one. Started at under twenty 1899 titles seen, if memory serves, and now I'm at exactly 100, according to Letterboxd. Found some new favs.

True favourite votes:

1. Cendrillon (Méliès)
— La colonne de feu (Méliès)
— Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris (Lumière)
— Intérieur d'une imprimerie (tirage d'une épreuve) (Lumière)
— Upside Down; or, The Human Flies (Booth)
— Voltige à cheval à Prague (Lumière)

Final list:

Wonderful Absinth - Guy

Cendrillon -
Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris - Lumiere
Ilusioniste fin de siecle - Melies
Kiss In The Tunnel - Smith
Ladies' Skirts nailed To A Fence -
La petite fille et son chat - Lumiere
reveil chrysis
Summoning The Spirits - Melies

Poll closes in about half an hour.

1
Cendrillon -

2
La petite fille et son chat - Lumiere

3
Kiss In The Tunnel - Smith
reveil chrysis

5
Défilé de voitures de bébés à la pouponnière de Paris - Lumiere
Upside Down; or, The Human Flies (Booth)
Wonderful Absinthe - Guy

8
"The Devil in a Convent " (Georges Méliès, 1899)
Ladies' Skirts nailed To A Fence -

10-14
La colonne de feu (Méliès)
Ilusioniste fin de siecle - Melies
Intérieur d'une imprimerie (tirage d'une épreuve) (Lumière)
Summoning The Spirits - Melies
Voltige à cheval à Prague (Lumière)

A great little list! No surprise to see Melies's Cinderella win the day, it's such a wonderful, compact telling.

That said, did the voters for Ladies' Skirts Nailed to a Fence realize it was likely intended as a laugh against suffragettes? The BFI entry on it says that it was probably also known as Women's Rights and that the backstory is that two housewifes are talking about women's rights when the men come along and nail their titular skirts to the titular fence and proper mockery is had But hey, I enjoy the front side/back side filming of it and I fav problematic flicks all the time...

I was so taken with the shot/reverse shot that I didn't think about anything else. But in any case the (ostensible?) back story is something I wasn't aware of; I read it as unmotivated mischief identical to Arroseur Arrose.

Mmhmm, the BFI entry credits that cutting to lazy filmmaking, but I think that's unfair. Personally I love the shot/reverse shot in it, quite dynamic, similar impact as a jump cut really, only spatial rather than temporal. And the acting is really vibrant as well. As for ostensible backstory, yeah, in retrospect I wish the BFI entry was more detailed on this point; hard to discredit a movie for mocking suffragette discussion when there's no explicit evidence of what's being discussed in the film itself...