The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever – Details, episodes & analysis

Considering Carolyn Jacobs' research focuses on the cultural history of media, especially in relation to histories of medicine, science, and public health, it makes sense that she examines her five picks through those lenses. From kissing panics to women being barred from performing surgery, the medical view of the discussed films brings new angles to understanding early cinema.

Carolyn is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the Communication Department at Central Connecticut State University. Her current book project, Sanitizing Cinema: Public Health and the Regulation of American Film, considers the effects of health emergencies on the development of motion pictures in the early twentieth century.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1900!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Exploding a Whitehead Torpedo (1900) - James H. White
• Grandma's Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• The Kiss (1900) - unknown
• The Cabbage Fairy (1900) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Turn-of-the-century Surgery (1900) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Oppenheimer (2023) - Christopher Nolan
• The Cheese Mites (1903) - F. Martin Duncan
• To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909) - F. Percy Smith
• The Acrobatic Fly (1910) - F. Percy Smith
• Mad Max (1979) - George Miller
• The Kiss (1896) - William Heise
• Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) - William K.L. Dickson
• The Horse in Motion (1878) - Eadweard Muybridge
• Something Good/Negro Kiss (1898) - William Selig
• The Cabbage Fairy (1896) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Midwife to the Upper Class (1902) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Falling Leaves (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• La séparacion de Doodica-Radica (1902) - Eugène-Louis Doyen
• "Do You Believe in Fairies? Cabbages, Victorian Memes, and the Birth of Cinema: Seeing Sapphic Sexuality in the Silent Era" - Kiki Loveday

From misattribution to missing sound, this conversation with Frank Kessler has a bit of lamentation for the lost works and context of early cinema. But there's also some celebration that we can view any films from the turn of the century (and earlier), including his picks that include trickery and evolving film language.

Frank is professor in media history at Utrecht University. His research activities concern mainly the field of early cinema and visual media in the 19th and early 20th century. His work includes the research program "The Nation and Its Other" and he acted as project leader and editor for A Million Pictures: Magic Lantern Slides in the History of Learning.

Films and resources mentioned:

• The One-Man Band (1900) - Georges Méliès
• Attack on a China Mission (1900) - James Williamson
• Grandma's Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• The Cabbage Fairy (1900) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Hamlet (1900) - Clément Maurice
• A Railway Collision (1900) - Walter R. Booth
• San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906 (1906) - unknown
• The Dreyfus Affair (1899) - Georges Méliès
• A Sneaky Boer (1901) - unknown
• The Cabbage Fairy (1896) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Hugo (2011) - Martin Scorsese
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1900) - Clément Maurice
• Alice Guy Films a ‘Phonoscène’ in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris (1907) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• 'They thought it was a marvel' : Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (1874-1961) : pioneer of puppet animation (2009) - Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul
• Women Film Pioneers Project

As the first guest of The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever and its 1800s season, writer and avid "prehistoric" film watcher J.J. DiUbaldi explores sound, color, and positive racial depictions (among other topics) through his five picks; things one might not expect to find in the earliest motion pictures of the 1880s and '90s.

J.J. maintains zepfanman.com, an eclectic hodgepodge of his interests over the years. His goal is to connect people and facilitate sharing in a way that only the internet can provide, which includes a 10 Years 10 Films blog series that is not unlike this podcast. You can also follow him on Letterboxd @zepfanman.

Visit https://www.the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own five favorites of the 1800s for a final tally in the season finale!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Serpentine Dance (1897) - Louis Lumière
• Something Good/Negro Kiss (1898) - William Selig
• Annie G. (1887) - Eadweard Muybridge
• The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894 or '95) - William K.L. Dickson
• Cinderella (1899) - Georges Méliès
• La Cucaracha (1934) - Lloyd Corrigan
• The Movie Orgy (1968) - Joe Dante
• The Kiss (1896) - William Heise
• Nope (2022) - Jordan Peele
• Timeline of Historical Film Colors
• Méliès: Fairy Tales in Color

Welcome to The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever. Ahead of guests and listeners sharing their picks for the first decade or so of cinema up until the end of the nineteenth century, instructor and host Tristan Ettleman provides some context on the podcast and the creation of “moving pictures.”

Matthew Solomon has taught film history and theory at the University of Michigan since 2011, with special interests in early and silent cinema, classic Hollywood filmmaking, and French film. He brings all that to bear on his five picks for 1900, which contain techniques that have only retroactively been considered early displays of evolving film grammar...and indeed, they are two-fifths French.

Matthew is the author of Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini, and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century and Méliès Boots: Footwear and Film Manufacturing in Second Industrial Revolution Paris, among many other books, articles, and publications.

Films and resources mentioned:

• Let Me Dream Again (1900) - George Albert Smith
• Grandma's Reading Glass (1900) - George Albert Smith
• The Enchanted Drawing (1900) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Magic Book (1900) - Georges Méliès
• The One-Man Band (1900) - Georges Méliès
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Hugo (2011) - Martin Scorsese
• The Cabbage Fairy (1896) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Cabbage Fairy (1900) - Aice Guy-Blaché
• The Playhouse (1921) - Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
• The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) - Louis Lumière

Malcolm Cook, Associate Professor of Film at the University of Southampton, found it challenging to pick just five works to represent 1900. But his selections embody the cross-section of genres and approaches across three countries, demonstrating how the turn of the century didn't suddenly disrupt the paradigms of the cinema of attractions but evolved them in exciting ways.

Malcolm is the author of Early British Animation: From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens (2018)  and co-editor (with Kirsten Moana Thompson) of the collection Animation and Advertising (2019). His current research focusses on useful animation, especially in relation to petroleum industries, with recent articles on this published in Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2023) and Media+Environment (2024).

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Enchanted Drawing (1900) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The One-Man Band (1900) - Georges Méliès
• Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• Solar Eclipse (1900) - Nevil Maskelyne
• Pierrette's Escapades (1900) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Victor Fleming
• Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) - William K.L. Dickson and William Heise
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• The Automatic Motorist (1911) - Walter R. Booth
• Crash (1996) - David Cronenberg
• The Magic Book (1900) - Georges Méliès
• Hugo (2011) - Martin Scorsese
• Women Film Pioneers Project

The second season of The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever narrows down from the decade-plus of the first down to just one calendar year. The first year of the 20th century didn't suddenly erupt the cinematic world into wholly unprecedented developments. But it fits into the trends and patterns steadily evolving through the last years of the 1800s, even as exciting changes and quality films illustrate increased output and popularity.

From medical viewpoints to "animation," retroactive markers of "filmic language" to attribution mysteries, the conversations with host Tristan Ettleman's guests are sure to dispel some myths and preconceived notions of this era of cinema and encourage the discovery of both well-documented and relatively obscure movies. Join us for an exploration of 1900 with The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever!

Films mentioned:

• Hamlet (1900) - Clément Maurice
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1900) - Clément Maurice
• Joan of Arc (1900) - Georges Méliès

Invented within the last decade or so of the 1800s, "cinema" (a fluid definition not owed to any one person or group as this season has demonstrated) grew exponentially through the end of the century. The guests for this first season of The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever have demonstrated the diversity of filmic form in this incubatory period, including technologies, genres, and representation before and behind the camera associated with much later decades. In this finale, host Tristan Ettleman summarizes the trends of the era, shares his five picks for the 1800s, and creates a "mini-canon" from guests' and listeners' picks. You can view that list at the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com. And be sure to look forward to the next season on 1900, starting soon!

Thank you to the guests of this first season:

• J.J. DiUbaldi
• Aurore Spiers
• Maggie Hennefeld
• Bryony Dixon
• Peter Domankiewicz

Films mentioned:

• Pauvre Pierrot (1892) - Charles-Émile Reynaud
• Cinderella (1899) - Georges Méliès
• The Astronomer's Dream (1898) - Georges Méliès
• Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) - William K.L. Dickson and William Heise
• Autour d'une cabine (1894) - Charles-Émile Reynaud
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• Something Good/Negro Kiss (1898) - William Selig
• The Four Troublesome Heads (1898) - Georges Méliès
• The Dairy Maid's Revenge (1899) - Frank S. Armitage

Peter Domankiewicz is a film director (Tea & Sangria), screenwriter, and journalist with a long-standing interest in the origins of cinema. That interest manifests in five picks that deconstruct some of the myths surrounding early film, including the definition of “cinema” and its “invention,” a widescreen format at least 70 years before it became a standard, and a genuinely exclusive explanation of a film residing in the French national film archive that Peter was able to identify this summer.

He is currently in the final year of a fully-funded PhD at De Montfort University, examining the work and inventions of the controversial moving picture pioneer, William Friese-Greene. He has written about early film for Sight & Sound and The Guardian, contributed to reference works and journals, and has recently co-authored Finding Birt Acres: The Rediscovery of a Film Pioneer for publication by University of Exeter Press in 2025. His blog William Friese-Greene & Me presents original research on early film history for a broad readership.

Films and resources mentioned:

• Fumerie d'opium (1899) - Gabriel Veyre
• La Nourrice (c. 1896-1900) - Georges Méliès
• The Derby 1895 (1895) - Birt Acres
• Young Griffo v. Battling Charles Barnett (1895) - Otway Latham
• "Untitled" (1890) - William Friese-Greene
• Napoléon (1927) - Abel Gance
• Repas annamite (1899) - Gabriel Veyre
• Le village de Namo: panorama pris d’une chaise à porteurs (1900) - Gabriel Veyre
• The Soldier's Courtship (1896) - Robert W. Paul
• Pauvre Pierrot (1892) - Charles-Émile Reynaud
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - Louis Lumière
• The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race (1895) - Birt Acres
• Rough Sea at Dover (1895) - Birt Acres
• Bullfight (1896) - Gray Latham and Eugène Lauste
• The Nichols Sisters (1895) - Otway Latham
• Sidewalks of New York (1895) - Otway Latham
• Children Dancing with Barrel Organ (1898) - Charles Goodwin Norton
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) - Louis Lumière
• "Who? What? When? Where? A mini chronology of the start of cinema" - Peter Domankiewicz
• "Happy 125th Birthday, Cinema!" - Peter Domankiewicz

Bryony Dixon is the curator of silent film at the BFI National Archive and her picks for the 1800s reflect that expertise. Bryony discusses five British films that are emblematic of key developments in the earliest days of film, which align with the end of the Victorian era that she details in her book The Story of Victorian Film.

Bryony is also the author of 100 Silent Films and has written numerous articles and book chapters on silent cinema and archiving. She is co-director of the British Silent Film Festival and has programmed films for many international festivals. She has been lead curator on a number of the BFI’s recent film restorations, including Underground (1928), Shooting Stars (1927), Epic of Everest (1924), The Great White Silence (1924), all nine surviving Hitchcock silent films, and the BFI’s large format Victorian films. Her Twitter is @bryonydixon.

Visit https://www.the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own five favorites of the 1800s for a final tally in the season finale!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Children Dancing with Barrel Organ (1898) - Charles Goodwin Norton
• Santa Claus (1898) - George Albert Smith
• Panoramic View of the Vegetable Market at Venice (1898) - William K.L. Dickson
• The Miller and the Sweep (1897) - George Albert Smith
• Launch of H.M.S. Albion (1898) - Robert W. Paul
• Launch of H.M.S. Albion at Blackwall (1898) - E.P. Prestwich
• The Battle of Midway (1942) - John Ford
• History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Kinetophonograph - William K.L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson