Top 10 Films of 1908

1. "Fantasmagorie" (Emile Cohl, France)

2. "Hôtel électrique" (Segundo de Chomon, France)

3. "Le Médecin du château" (France)

4. "Le Cheval emballé" (Louis J. Gasnier, France)

5. "Une Dame vraiment bien" (Louis Feuillade, Romeo Bosetti, France)

6. "Magic Bricks" (Segundo de Chomon, France)

7. "The Last Days Of Pompei" (Luigi Maggi, Arturo Ambrosio, Italy)

8. "The Adventures Of Dollie" (D.W. Griffith, Biograph)

9. "Le Premier cigare d'un collegien" (Louis J. Gasnier, France)

10. "Rescued From An Eagle's Nest" (J. Searle Dawley, Biograph)

Other great shorts:

At The Photographer (Austria)
Ecu d'or ou La Bonne auberge (France)

Female Screening (Austria)

A Funny Story At The Window (Austria)

Le Génie du feu (France)
In a Gypsy Camp Near Moscow (Russia)
Les Mésaventures d’un photographe (France)
Les Patineurs (France)

The Power Of Hypnosis (Austria)

La Prophetesse de Thebes (France)
Pruska kultura (Poland)

The Saucy Chambermaid (Austria)

La Table magique (France)
The Tempest (UK)

Weak shorts:

L'Agent gelé (France)
Amour et mélasse (France)
Anaïc (France)
L'Avare (France)
La Bonne bergère et la mauvaise princesse (France)
A Calamitous Elopement
Le Conseil du Pipelet (France)
Conte de la grand-mère et rêve de l'enfant (France)
La Cuisine de l'ogre (France)
Le Fakir de Singapour (France)
French interpreter policeman (France)
Hallucinations pharmaceutiques (France)
Il y a un dieu pour les ivrognes (France)
Lully (France)
Mon pantalon est decousu (France)
Le Nouveau seigneur du village (France)
Photographie électrique à distance (France)
Le Rêve d'un fumeur d'opium (France)
Salon de coiffure (France)
Le Tambourin fantastique (France)
Les Torches humaines (France)
A Tricky Painter’s Fate (France)
Vive la vie de garcon (France)
Why That Actor Was Late (France)

Une Dame vraiment bien (1908) ***

An attractive woman distracts every man in sight. Amusing French comedy co-directed by Louis Feuillade and Romeo Bosetti.

Le Médecin du château (1908) ****

Home with her little son, a physician's wife has to fend off vicious robbers, while her husband is away visiting his patients. This French film is one of the earliest "rescue" melodramas. It clearly influenced D.W.Griffith, who remade it as "The Lonely Villa" (1909).

Le Cheval emballé (1908) ****

A horse eats some grain and a wacky chase in on. Directed by Louis J.Gasnier and produced by Pathé.

L'Agent gelé (1908) *

A screwball farce about snowball fights. Some sources claim that it was directed by George Méliès, but that's highly unlikely, because it's so different from all his other films.

Photographie électrique à distance (1908) **

A demonstration of a new gizmo that looks very much like television.

Vive la vie de garcon (1908) **

After his wife leaves him, Max has to take care of all household chores: washing dishes, buying groceries, cooking, etc.

Rescued From An Eagle's Nest (1908) ***

Biograph melodrama starring D.W. Griffith as a father whose child has been kidnapped by an eagle.

The Tempest (1908) ***

Le Premier cigare d'un collegien (1908) ***

Max smokes his first cigar and becomes very ill.

The Adventures Of Dollie (1908) ***

D.W. Griffith's directorial debut is quite similar to an earlier film where he played a lead role, "Rescued From An Eagle's Nest" (1908), only this time, a vicious Gypsy replaces a vicious bird as a kidnapper.

Les Mésaventures d’un photographe (1908) ***

Slapstick farce about a photographer.

La Table magique (1908) ***

Amusing comedy about a disappearing table.

Pruska kultura (1908) ***

The oldest preserved Polish film. It's a deeply patriotic denounciation of the persecution of ethnic Poles in Wielkopolska (then under Prussian rule).

Les Patineurs (1908) ***

Indoor skating with French Keystone Kops.

In A Gypsy Camp Near Moscow (1908) ***

The Saucy Chambermaid (1908) ***

La Prophetesse de Thebes (1908) ***

The Power Of Hypnosis (1908) ***

Le Génie du feu (1908) ***

A Funny Story At The Window (1908) ***

Female Screening (1908) ***

Ecu d'or ou La Bonne auberge (1908) ***

At The Photographer (1908) ***

Magic Bricks (1908) ***

Hand-tinted color film directed by Segundo de Chomon. Inspired by Melies, but even more experimental.

The Last Days Of Pompei (1908) ***

A Calamitous Elopment (1908) **

A thief profits from the elopement of a young couple. Directed by D.W.Griffith (who also plays a policeman).

Conte de la grand-mère et rêve de l'enfant (1908) **

A child dreams of a fairy land.

Anaïc (1908) **

Bandits attack a family and an innocent man is falsely accused of that crime. Aka "Le Balafré".

Mon pantalon est decousu (1908) **

There is a hole in Max Linder's pants.

Amour et mélasse (1908) **

Slapstick farce set in a store.

Le Nouveau seigneur du village (1908) **

Giant frogs, giant crabs and sexy dames.

Il y a un dieu pour les ivrognes (1908) **

A drunk throws his wife and daughter out the window, and then tries to hang himself.

La Bonne bergère et la mauvaise princesse (1908) **

A Cinderella-type story.

Hallucinations pharmaceutiques (1908) *

Aka "Le Truc du potard". Overlong and boring.

French interpreter policeman (1908) *

French cops learning English.

A Tricky Painter’s Fate (1908) *

A painter's prank.

Le Fakir de Singapour (1908) *

A fakir performs various tricks.

Les Torches humaines (1908) *

A Byzantine emperor is burning people alive.

Lully (1908) *

Méliès' film about a violin player. Aka "Le Violon brisé".

Le Conseil du Pipelet (1908) *

Wrestling. Aka "Un Tour à la foire".

L'Avare (1908) *

A miser refuses to help those in need.

Salon de coiffure (1908) *

Méliès' film set in a barber shop.

Le Rêve d'un fumeur d'opium (1908) **

The dream of an opium addict. Quite sexy.

Why That Actor Was Late (1908) *

This Georges Méliès' comedy is way too incoherent to properly answer the title question.

La Cuisine de l'ogre (1908) *

An ogre cooks his dinner.

Le Tambourin fantastique (1908) *

A magic tambourin.

Hôtel électrique (1908) ****

In this hotel, there is no need to tip the porter - the luggage moves by itself. No need for maids or butlers, neither - the furniture and all other objects are quite animated as well. This is not the earliest example of pixilation (animation of live-action footage) - George Melies' films used it as well - but it's the first film where it dominates the entire work. Directed by Segundo de Chomon.

Fantasmagorie (1908) ****

An inventive, fast-paced cartoon about the adventures of a little clown, who annoys movie house patrons, jumps inside bottles and plays with elephants. Directed by Émile Cohl.