Émile Cohl

A short animated film where the drawings and characters morph into others to create a series of short sketches.

Furniture moves itself into a new house, without human intervention. No people appear in this stop-motion short by animation pioneer Émile Cohl. (imdb)

Mother in law gets a new set of dentures. Despite being initially happy, the family soon discovers the teeth have a life of their own and jump from their owner's mouth and bite everyone who comes near--from ladies to gentlemen to policemen.

The Hasher's Dream in less than a minute & a half shows the surrealistic visions of a man under the influence of alcohol. Hasher, in his delirium, watches beautiful strange events and demons in an enormous moon.

A nightmare, sketched out upon a living blackboard.

A cast of stick figures plays out a series of comic vignettes. (imdb)

A woman and her magical mirror.

To the rhythm of a frenzied choreography, acrobatic matches come to life on a black background. Leaving their matchbox, they line the film in circular, concentric movements. In an almost aquatic momentum, the squadron of little bits of wood mould the contours of a character, a run-of-the-mill smoker, before transforming into a funny harness. The film ends when the matches, again transformed, take on the appearance of a distinguished man who, finally finds a way of lighting his cigarette. (imdb)

Émile Cohl produced independently an animated series titled Les Aventures des Pieds Nickelés. There were four series of these produced, all released between 1917 and 1918. (imdb)

A painter is seen in his studio with his model. A buyer comes in, and the painter shows him a number of his paintings, all of them based on puns, including one of a devil shooting pool. Eventually, the buyer purchases all of the paintings. (bcdb.com)

This animation of French pioneer Emile Cohl is only about five minutes long, but even at that short duration it takes too long to put its message across. It opens with a walking caveman who quickly grows tired walking and rests on a rock. The man eventually captures a horse, and before long he has invented the chariot, which slowly progresses into a train and car. On water, having observed fish swimming around, man invents the boat and then the ship. (imdb)

A scientist has acquired a microscope and is showing it off to his friend. He takes various body samples - hair, phlegm, etc. - and puts them under the microscope. The "microbes" coalesce and form different shapes, creating caricatures of various people, such as mothers-in-law and drunks. These animated characters goof around in traditional cartoon fashion. (imdb)

The story is set in Spain. A man tries to kill himself by jumping out the window but is caught by an anchor thrown from an airplane (it's obvious Cohl knew very little about planes!). He's drug to a weird land in space and for some odd reason, the man begins tormenting the Moon. The various celestial beings then come to punish the guy and eventually throw him back to earth. Weird and familiar. (imdb)

And here is an early success as he puts the viewer in the mood of a little boy, playing with his toys, running them through the paces of his little circus.

A stop-motion film from Émile Cohl with tin soldiers, children's drawings and cannibals.

A heartfelt animation about love from Émile Cohl.

One couple gets nosy and want to know what the two young lovers are doing next door. So, they decide to drill a hole in the wall! They are discovered and the weird young couple use magic to play a joke on them--as all the older couple see is weird animation. (imdb)

The film begins with a showman getting folks to look into his machine that foretells the future. This is done using pictures and animations and in the first three cases, the customers are VERY unhappy with what they are shown. However, the fourth asks to see his mother-in-law as she really is--and he is in full agreement with what the machine reveals. (imdb)

A VERY persistent medicine salesman!

This early Emile Cohl animation movie is about a jigsaw puzzle that assembles itself at the command of a mysterious master. (imdb)

A Émile Cohl animation short.

A Émile Cohl comedy short. About a man who almost scares his wife to death. But a seat cushion makes it all alright.

In Le cheveu délateur, a magician discovers the real identity of another character by the movement of a single hair, that, once animated, gives life to a story.

A Émile Cohl animation short.

A Émile Cohl animated short in The Newlyweds series.

Émile Cohl mixes live-action and stop-motion animation in this charming evocation of the power of imagination. A magician shapes his cane into a hoop with strange properties for a young girl. Costume changes and city promenades give way towards greater abstraction as the film becomes absorbed by what goes on inside the ring.

Depicts a doctor looking into his patient's brain and seeing a collection of hideous and grotesque figures.

A bizarre musical couple falls asleep after an insane performance, and dreams about musical instruments.

A haunted-hotel film, reviving a joke from a 1900 comic strip showing a sleeper being ejected from an electric bed.

This subject portrays in a vivid manner the operations of a puppet in his efforts to see the sights. Many very entertaining and novel productions of magic. (imdb)

The great men of letters and military conquest pose on subsequent pages of a very special history book.

A delightfully pleasing and beautifully hand-colored series of panoramic views, giving the history of the fan. A large ostrich feather fan opens and closes alternately, showing each time a different scene and the various styles of fans in use throughout ages and by many peoples. Scenes illustrated are: Adam and Eve, The Egyptians, The Greeks, Romans, Sixteenth Century, Modern Use. (imdb)

Framed in a wreath of roses we see a lithe Creek dancer, who sways and postures before an epicurean party of ancients, followed by a laurel wreath and encircling a scene showing school children of 1830 receiving their marks of diligence at a distribution of rewards: then the wreath of bay tendered by the Human Senators to Caesar on the culmination of his career; now a beggar receives a loaf called a "crown" from a charitable passerby. (imdb)

Christ is shown crowned with thorns by the rabble; following the divine drama we see the old comedian's wreath presented him at a performance. The next view shows the Emperor Charlemagne crowning his son Lewis. The film closes with the wreath of orange blossoms encircling a bridal party.

Stop-motion film from Emile Cohl has a clown walk out in front of a group of people and do various tricks including standing on his head, riding a horse and falling face first off the horse.

Several unique specimens of highly ornamented porcelain are shown in series. In each case the various pieces of ware are in reality formed of living people. After a short time has been allowed for admiration of each article, it disintegrates into the individual models, who pose in various figures and dances. In the following pictures are seen a powder box, a clock, candle sticks, a loving cup and a vase, all of wonderfully ornate design, beautifully colored. (imdb)

A film from Émile Cohl showing the various hats women used over the years.

An old and learned doctor discovers the secret of spontaneous generation and makes a microscopic germ which in its growth gives birth to the following people who dissolve into one another and into other shapes with startling mystery: A girl, after passing through numerous forms, becomes a ferocious doorkeeper. He in turn evolves into a sheriff's officer, who changes to a fisherman of great weight, whose evolution forms a collector and a policeman, who in turn dissolve into a series of designs. (imdb)

A film about cupid shoes by Émile Cohl.

Grandfather gets a pair of magic spectacles, which he claims to possess the miraculous power of showing the tastes and inclinations of the person who puts them on. There are present at the time a large family gathering, father, mother, sons and daughters, and grandchildren, and each member of the party in turn puts on the spectacles. Then we see on the curtain all that is passing in the mind of the wearer clearly portrayed in each eye, just as if we were looking through opera glasses. (imdb)

This subject presents n remarkably clever series of illusions in which a Japanese lantern, several dolls, chickens, mice and grasshoppers play a very prominent part. Mystifying and highly entertaining throughout and of perfect photographic quality. (imdb)

There have been numerous studies of plants and flowers presented to the public, but none which exhibit the perfection of stereoscopic detail. The various plants have been photographed against black backgrounds and are carefully colored. In addition, the various groups were made to revolve during the time of exposure and thus show a succession of lights and shadows which produces the relief which adds so greatly to a picture. (imdb)

A clown walks onto a stage where there's a box with a smile on it sitting on a table. The clown inserts something into the box and then above it on a screen various images are displayed. (imdb)

In "Rêves enfantins", players in the flesh are mixed with animated objects and cut-out paper actors.

Émile Cohl uses stop-motion animation to tell about life on the chicken farm.

1. Hercules discovers an excellent method of tanning the skin of the Nemean lion. 2. Without effort he cuts off the seven heads of the Lerneau hydra. E. With equal ease he captures the wild boar of Erymanthus. 4. He checks in dexterous manner the flight of the golden-horned and heaven-hoofed deer of Manale. 5. When the fantastic birds of the Stymphalian Lake play tricks upon him, he quells them with one movement of his hand... (imdb)

The events that transpire in the drama are too well known to require reiteration here. All showmen and most auditors are familiar with the story. This makes the burlesque possible, for without a common knowledge of the original drama a portion of the comedy would be lost. The various parts are played by puppets in the hands of clever and careful operators. (imdb)

The opening scene is in a tailor's shop, showing the four assistants more or less in love with their employer's daughter. After some time, the tailor says he will give his daughter to the one who shows himself to be the cleverest. Some very amusing incidents follow. In keen competition we see them all trying to perform the most difficult tasks, in order to win the much-cherished reward. They attempt to sew without thread, and without a needle, and also to sew the wing of a fly. (imdb)

An animation where real life objects turn into animations.

A witch, upset with a man who yelled at her, places a curse on his box of matches that turns him into a skeleton. (imdb)

And now our funny little friend, Snookums, has started real trouble for his poor Dada. A few of the neighbors and Dada were having a nice quiet little game when the door-bell rang and when Snookums' beautiful mother went to the door, she found the minister. Well, the "gang" made a hurried attempt to hide things, and the chips, cards, etc., were stuffed under the couch, before the Reverend Sir was admitted. (imdb)

A female fortune teller examines the soles of a man's feet to see his future.

Cohl finished his prolific filmmaking career with a last adventure of his favorite persona: LA MAISON DU FANTOCHE.

A cut-out animation showing an animated cameraman who films live people.

A child painter sells one of his paintings to an adult who appears to be surprised.

An animated look at the changing shape of hats through the ages.

It's Lucien Cazalis's day for calling on the ladies. Being a true gentleman, he brings some flowers as a gift. Unfortunately, his rival pinches them to present as his own, and Cazalis is left sitting on his hat.

Lucien Cazalis first his maid and hires a new one. When she puts on an apron, he realizes how pretty she is. What's a Frenchman to do? However, when various men in uniform troop into his apartment when he is leaving, he grows suspicious.

Jobard receives a note from a secret admirer and goes to a cafe to meet her. However, not knowing what she looks like, he mistakes other woman for what he hopes will be the woman of his dreams.

Gaston finds a letter to a marquise from his father. He wants her daughter to charm the unsuspecting Gaston out of his fear of marriage. Gaston plays a trick on them by switching places with Joabard, his ill-mannered chauffeur.

Lucien Cazalis sees a young woman and falls instantly in love. He volunteers to carry her trunk to her apartment, where he kneels, grinning in front of her, until her father locks him in the trunk and throws it out the window.

In the course of various unfeasible adventures, Monsieur de Crac finds himself comfortably installed in Mount Etna, smoking a pipe, when he is confronted by the Monster of the Volcano, who throws him down into the bowels of the earth and out into an ocean on the other side of the world.

Elegant, monocled Lucien Cazalis sees women working on the streets of Paris, and will not have it! Unlike most male chauvinist pigs, he doesn't merely decry what he sees as unfeminine, he steps in and does the work, and fouls it up.

Lucien Cazalis doesn't laugh. He can't. The funnier the situation is, the more he looks like he's losing his temper. He knows this is ridiculous, but he can't help it, so he consults with a doctor about the problem, but even trained professionals can't do anything about it. He doesn't ask the question what if can laugh? Will he ever be able to keep a straight face thereafter?

Lucien Cazalis is very excited to be working for a bank. His first assignment is to go to a town and collect a debt. When he arrives, his eccentric choice of hats makes the locals think he is a dignitary they have been expecting.