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SILENT F&SF MOVIES ON YOUTUBE 1895 - 1906

Voyage A Travers L'Impossible, Georges Méliès, 1904

Part one of a comprehensive listing of all silent movies that are considered fantasy or science fiction and available in some form on YouTube. For details, see the Introduction on Silent F&SF Movies on YouTube 1895-1906. Click here for 1907-1913.  Click here for 1914-1919. Click here for 1920-1929.

  Abbreviations

 

d       director

p       producer

s       screenwriter

c       cinematographer

se     special effects

lp      leading players

co-    in collaboration

 

1895
La charcuterie mécanique (The Mechanical Butcher)
 
0:43
co-d/p Louis Lumière
co-d Auguste Lumière
1896
Le Manoir du diable (The Haunted Castle)
 
3:18
d/p/s Georges Méliès
1897
Making Sausages, also The End of All Things
 
0:50
d/p/s/c George A. Smith
 
Note: Remake of La charcuterie mécanique
The X-Ray Fiend, also X-Rays
 
0:44
d/s/p/c George A. Smith
lp Tom Green
1898
La lune à un mètre, also The Astronomer's Dream, A Trip to the Moon, and The Man in the Moon
 
3:30
d/p/s/lp Georges Méliès
 
Note: Often considered the first true science fiction film
1899
Un bon Lit (A Midnight Episode)
 
1:02
d/p/s/lp Georges Méliès

[Currently not available]
1901
A la conquête de l'air (The Flying Machine), also A la conquista del aire
 
0:23
d/s Ferdinand Zecca
 
Note: fragment
L'homme a la tête en caoutchouc (The India Rubber Head)
 
2:33
d/p/s Georges Méliès
L'omnibus des toqués blancs et noirs (Off to Bloomingdale Asylum), also Off to Bedlam
 
0:58
d/p/s Georges Méliès
An Over-Incubated Baby
 
1:08
d/s Walter R. Booth
p Robert W. Paul
1902
The Twentieth Century Tramp, also Happy Hooligan and His Airship
 
1:40
d/s/c Edwin S. Porter
p Thomas A. Edison
 
Note: A remake of A la conquête de l'air
Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon)
 
15:36
d/p Georges Méliès
lp Georges Méliès, Victor Andre, Bluette Bernon, Depierre, Farjaux, Corps de Ballet du Chatelet
 
​
1903
Alice in Wonderland
 
9:32
co-d Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow
 
Note: Eight of the original twelve minutes restored and partially hand-colored from a heavily damaged print
Le Royaume des fees (Kingdom of the Fairies)
 
16:45
d/p Georges Méliès
co-s Georges Méliès, Marie-Catherine le Jumel d'Aulnoy
lp Georges Méliès, Bleuette Bernon
1904
Dog Factory, also Edison's Dog Factory
 
4:55
d Edwin S. Porter
p Thomas A. Edison
 
Note: Yet another remake of La charcuterie mécanique. Several lost films also used this surefire gimmick.
Voyage à Travers L'impossible (The Impossible Voyage), also Whirling the Worlds; Voyage Across the Impossible; An Impossible, Journey Through the Impossible
 
20:26
d/p/s Georges Méliès
lp Georges Méliès, Fernande Albany, May de Levergne, Jehanne d'alcy
 
Note: Based on an 1882 play by Jules Verne and French dramatist Adolphe d'Ennery
1905
Loïe Fuller
 
1:35
uncredited
 
Note: Not technically sf but Loïe Fuller was the sensation of the 1900 Paris Worlds Fair as “la fée éléctricité,” the Spirit of Electricity, doing the Serpentine Dance as gels played colored lights over the stretched fabric on her arms. At least a dozen films of her are known, but this one has the best hand-tinted color and the illusion of her appearing and disappearing to open and close the performance; Georges Méliès had filmed a version of this dance, also in hand-tinted color, as La colonne de feu [The Pillar of Fire] in 1899, available on YouTube
Le Raid Paris-Monte Carlo en deux heures (An Adventurous Automobile Trip)
 
13:11
d/p Georges Méliès
s Victor de Cottens
lp Fernande Albany, Galipaux, Fragson, Jane Ivon, Little Tich, Antoni
 
Note: Hardy has this as 1904; movie is narrated
1906
Le dirigeable fantastique (Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship), also The Fantastical Airship
 
2:55
d/p/s Georges Méliès
 
Note: hand-colored
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
 
6:33
co-d Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter
lp Jack Brawn
 
Note: adapted from Winsor McCay's cartoon strip
L'homme invisible (The Invisible Thief)
 
8:24
d Ferdinand Zecca
Note: adaptation of H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man
The '?' Motorist, also The Motorist
 
2:31
d Walter R. Booth
p Robert WIlliam Paul
Les Quat'Cents Farces du diable (The Four Hundred Tricks of the Devil), also The Merry Frolics of Satan
 
17:32
d/p/s Georges Méliès
 
Note: Based on a 1905 play, Les Quatre Cents Coups du diable, by Victor de Cottens and Victor Darlay, itself an adaptation of an 1839 play
Voyage autour d'une étoile (Around a Star)
 
6:06
d Gaston Velle
 Links updated July 22, 2023
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