A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.
An officer calls his sailors to the deck. They assemble around the canon while the officer scans the horizon. They all turn in the direction of the camera to look in the distance. At the same time the ship is hit! This scene is a filmed reconstruction of the 1897 Greek-Turkish war.
Three military men, seen inside a fortification, are firing on an unseen enemy force. The call for reinforcements but ladders appear signalling the enemy is about to overrun this position.
As the only survivor of a battle, a cavalryman heroically defends his flag.
This reconstruction refers to a meeting that allegedly took place on 25 November 1804 at Fontainebleau between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon to discuss the coronation.
One minute costume drama from the Lumiere company.
Staged assassination from the Lumiere company.
This one is modelled on the painting by Paul Delaroche and is an extension of the stage act known as “tableau vivant”.
This early film made by Georges Hatot for the Lumière Company is a brief single shot-scene of the assassination of the French revolutionary writer, Jean-Paul Marat--who has the notorious distinction of having influenced the Reign of Terror.
Nero, seated on a throne, has slaves summoned. Each drinks poison and dies, the second even though he can see the corpse of his predecessor.
The Lumière catalog sold this title as 13 individual, one-scene films, allowing exhibitors to choose which films they wanted to purchase and how to arrange them in their programs. Lumière catalog no. 933 through 945.
