The 20 Best Films of 1896

With the help of a magic cauldron, Mephistopheles conjures up a variety of supernatural characters.

As an elegant maestro of mirage and delusion drapes his beautiful female assistant with a gauzy textile, much to our amazement, the lady vanishes into thin air.

In this fantastic scene, a man who is eager to retire has a difficult time finding peace, as his nocturnal illusions come to life out of thin air.

A gardener is watering a garden. A child sneaks up behind him and steps on the hose. The gardener puts the nozzle up to his face. The boy then steps off the hose, resulting in the gardener getting wet. The boy ends up getting a spanking.

Two duelists, armed with pistols, fire: one of them is hit and collapses.

"Shows papa walking the floor with a crying baby in his arms. An exceedingly laughable subject."

A lady watering the garden with a hose, a mischievous boy stops the flow of water until she looks for the cause, when he permits the water to flow, resulting in the lady taking an unexpected bath. The father then appears and chastises the youthful culprit. One of the best films ever made.

Husband comes home late and wakes the wife.

A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed, and a battle ensues in hilarious comic fashion.

"Depicts the patient fisherman, sitting on the end of a plank, waiting for a bite. Practical joker comes along and removes stone from other end of plank."

A train arrives at La Ciotat station.

This lost film presumably features a person watering flowers to comedic effect. This film is believed to have imitated the Louis and Auguste Lumière film "L'arroseur arrose", which survives.

Shows the surf breaking upon the shore, and in the distance, two fishermen in a boat, returning from a day's fishing.

A soldier stands guard at a sentry box and leaves it unprotected for a moment, a moment that two men take advantage of to put up posters where it is prohibited.

Fantasy tale involving a fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Gently moving through the cabbages and using of lovely gestures, she takes one baby out of there, then makes more magic and delivers two more.

A woman sitting on a bench is approached by a soldier. Momentarily, she refuses his advances, but in no time at all, they are kissing each other passionately.

In a medium closeup shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at a hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.

Workers are unloading a ship in Barcelona 1896.

The fourth of eight short black and white films from director William K.L. Dickson in which he chronicles the story of Rip Van Winkle. In this film, Rip encounters several other dwarf-like mountain-dwellers.