The Vanishing Lady

Lancement d'un navire

At the launch of a ship, of which we can only see the hull, the audience moves aside.

The Portrait

A man is increasingly unnerved by a mysterious portrait. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, the film is thought to have run about 45 minutes long, but only an 8 minute fragment is known to have survived.

Arrival of a Train at Vincennes Station

This lost film presumably features a train arriving at Vincennes station, eastern Paris. (Until 2020, was confused with Arrival at Joinville flipbook.)

An Up-to-Date Conjurer

A film from Méliès has him playing a magician who does a few tricks including making a woman disappear.

Ramassage du linge

Lone Wolf

A boy finds a large wolf-like dog in the mountain and they befriend. The local peasants think that it may be a real wolf responsible for the sheep pestilence. They decide to kill the animal, but the boy is worried about it and he secretly provides the dog with the food.

François Mitterrand & Anne Pingeot: Pieces of a Love Story

In the summer of 1963, François Mitterrand was going through a deep existential crisis. His political career was at a standstill and, after 19 years of marriage, the couple had grown apart. It was at this point that François Mitterrand met the woman who was to give new meaning to his life. Anne Pingeot, aged 19, was to become the companion of a lifetime, a woman who would be with him throughout his rise to power and who would remain by his side until his last breath. For the first time, Anne Pingeot has agreed to allow the fragments of this passionate love story — hundreds of letters and a diary — to be shown on television, before being donated to the National Library.

The Clock Store

The various clocks and watches in a clock store dance, ring alarms musically, and otherwise entertain us in an after hours presentation.

Dunechka

Melodrama based on the autobiographical screenplay by Svetlana Shafranskaya. A love story of a 12-year-old girl who goes on a tour with the theatre in which her father works. This love will bring her much trouble, disappointments and grief, but at the same time will awaken her soul, make her happier and wiser.

Summoning the Spirits

A bearded man hangs up a wreath and, like any good magician, waves his hands inside of it and under it to show us it's only a wreath…

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Toby, a cynical film director finds himself trapped in the outrageous delusions of an old Spanish shoe-maker who believes himself to be Don Quixote. In the course of their comic and increasingly surreal adventures, Toby is forced to confront the tragic repercussions of a film he made in his idealistic youth.

Tutta colpa di Freud

Francesco is a psychoanalyst grappling with three hopeless causes: a bookseller in love with a book thief, a lesbian hell-bent on becoming straight after a heartbreak, and an 18-year-old in a relationship with a much older married man. Unfortunately, these patients are also his three beloved daughters!

Andrei Rublev

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.