French film photo galley for 1910s All genres

French films 1910s All genres

Barbe-bleue (1901)

In this early short film, Georges Méliès uses his extraordinary range of talents to create a work of art which is both entertaining and, for its time, a huge technical achievement. This is Méliès’ first attempt at making a film with the narrative structure of a play and should be considered as the earliest example of the kind of plotted film we are familiar... [More...]

Le Voyage dans la lune (1902)

Georges Méliès’ most famous film, Le Voyage dans la lune, is perhaps the best example of his remarkable imagination, artistic genius and talent as a film-maker. Not only did he write, direct and produce the film, he also had a hand in designing the sets and costumes. Although it may appear naïve and fanciful by today’s standards... [More...]

Le Mélomane (1903)

In this hilarious short film, Georges Méliès shows his talent both as a lithe comic performer and as a master of the cinematic art of his day. Méliès uses the technique of multiple exposure (which he invented and used repeatedly in his films) almost to its limit – exposing the film no less than seven times to allow himself to appear seven times in the same... [More...]

L'Assassinat du duc de Guise (1908)

L’Assassinat du duc de Guise is a film of immense historic importance. One of the first films to use the narrative form, it proved to be an immense international success for its production company, Film d’Art, and, by dint of its popularity, helped to propel cinema from its early pioneering endeavours into a respectable and commercially viable industry... [More...]

Le Locataire diabolique (1909)

For this, one of his later films, Georges Méliès revisits the career that earned his reputation before he turned to filmmaking, that of the stage conjuror. Much of the film is taken up with an elaborate conjuring trick, with Méliès (playing the part of the diabolical lodger) pulling an improbable assortment of large objects out of a small travelling bag... [More...]

Fantômas – À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913)

As artistic director of the Gaumont film company, Louis Feuillade was keen to capitalise on the success of the Fantômas series of novels, written by Pierre Souvestre et Marcel Allain. These novels were a world-wide phenomenon in their day, their readership extending far beyond France, with 32 complete novels published between 1910 and Souvestre’s death on the eve of World War... [More...]

Juve contre Fantômas (1913)

The second instalment in Louis Feuillade’s five-part Fantômas serial sees a substantial shift towards the more familiar action thriller, making this a spectacular contrast to the first film in the series. Although perhaps less atmospheric and menacing than the first film, Juve contre Fantômas has other pleasures... [More...]

Le Mort qui tue (1913)

Le Mort qui tue is the third, and in some ways the most sophisticated, of the five Fantômas films by Louis Feuillade. Not only is it an exemplary silent film for its time, it is also a masterpiece of suspense and intrigue, possibly the earliest example of what we would recognise today as the suspense thriller, or the true French polar... [More...]

Fantômas contre Fantômas (1914)

The plot thickens with this, the fourth instalment in Feuillade’s epic Fantômas cycle, based on the popular novels of Souvestre et Allain. Juve and Fantômas are suspected of being one in the same man (which is quite plausible given Juve’s clever subterfuge in the previous Fantômas film). Later the real Fantômas (or is it Juve after all?) sets up a fund... [More...]

Les Vampires (1915)

After the huge success of the Fantômas serial between 1913 and 1914, Gaumont were more than eager to produce another serial, mainly to fend off competition from the rival French film company Pathé (which had just acquired the rights to an American serial, Les Mystères de New York). Louis Feuillade delivered a crime serial in a similar vein... [More...]