In a living room, four contemporary couples from the time the film was shot dance a waltz under the direction of a violinist (Linder). They begin a minuet and their costumes change in a sudden. A man enters and seems interested in what he sees, casts a spell and everything disappears. Transforming himself into the devil, the visitor takes the violinist with him to hell, where he creates a large piece of silk out of a cauldron. The fabric unrolls, revealing a young woman in a silk dress that starts dancing the serpentine. While she dances, other women join in a synchronized ballet, before all of them vanish into bursts of flames.
Watch the official Beginning of the Serpentine Dance 1908 trailer in HD below.
The mysterious Count Orlok summons a happily married real estate agent to his castle, located up in the Transylvanian mountains, to finalise a terrifying deal.
Automata is the eerie, black-humoured story of Henry, the last in a long line of duck hunters. The film examines the connection between hunter and prey and obsession in the face of extinction.
In 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
A young man travels to Mars in a rocket ship, where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group with the support of Queen Aelita, who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.
This mostly lost film is often confused with director Paul Wegener third and readily available interpretation of the legend; Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920).
This is an incomplete fragment of a longer film, so doesn’t make much sense, but it’s very beautiful and colourful with plenty of fireworks, flames and fountains as well as the customary fairies, magic and dancing.
The young hero, Frederick, is leaving his country home and going to the city to attend the bull fight, and while there he meets and woos a beautiful maiden, forgetting his own little sweetheart at home.
Stable hostler Joe loves his wife Annie, but she leaves him and their child for a wealthy gentleman, only to die destitute in London, where Joe's enduring love brings her solace in her final moments.
Our picture relates to a crime committed by a Gorilla who escapes from his cage and through circumstantial evidence a young man, whom we will call in our story Jim, is accused and is just about to be convicted.
Silent film directed by Mario Caserini for the Società Italiana Cines in 1908. It should not be confused, as is often the case, with the film "Abbandonata" from June 1910, whose director is unknown and was produced by Itala Films (a company Mario Caserini never worked for).
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