Une Famille nombreuse 1908
Early short film about a big family going on an outing.

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Anna, what are you waiting for? 1906    star_border 5
Modern Americans think that the movies learned to talk in 1927 when Al Jolson opened his mouth in THE JAZZ SINGER, but sound pictures had a much longer history. Edison envisaged combining the phonograph with motion pictures even before they had been perfected and there is a test sequence from 1895. By the time this 'phonoscene' had been made, Alice Guy had been directing a series of them and there was a series in production in Germany, too. Yet true synchronization remained a problem, what with records wearing out and film breaking until the perfection of sound on film itself.

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Dranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu 1905    star_border 4.7
Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.

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Serpentine Dance 1900    star_border 3.5
1900 Gaumont version of the ubiquitous Serpentine dance, this one hand tinted. Filmmaker anonymous. (not to be mistaken with Alice Guy-Blaché's version with Madame Ondine, from the same year and company)

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