Top 5 Best Films from Western Europe

1. The Machine Man [L'homme machine]
Director: Étienne-Jules Marey
France (formerly French Republic) | Western Europe | Europe
1885 | 1880s | 19th Century

Étienne-Jules Marey's "The Machine Man" (1895) is a curious animation for its time. On the one hand its tricks are meant to serve a technical purpose, on the other its style resembles the not yet discovered stylism of post modern art: the human reduced to just a linear silhouette on a white canvas.



2. The Magic Rosette [La rosace magique]
Director: Émile Reynaud
France (formerly French Republic) | Western Europe | Europe
1877 | 1870s | 19th Century

In its day, the moving images in Émile Reynaud's ""The Magic Rosette"" (1877) must have felt more exciting than some of the current developments in AI technology. Ground-breaking in form and content, this is one of the few pre-cinema works of art that possess true magic within them.



3. Transit of Venus [Passage de Vénus]
Director: Pierre Janssen
France (formerly French Republic) | Western Europe | Europe
1874 | 1870s | 19th Century

Pierre Janssen allowed the world to gaze at stellar objects for the first time on film in ""Transit of Venus"" (1874). He gave hope that one day images in motion can become part of our quest to understanding the world that we inhabit. The series of photographs set the race for the discovery of cinema.



4. Horse and Rider Jumping Over an Obstacle [Pferd und Reiter springen über ein Hindernis]
Director: Ottomar Anschütz
Germany (formerly German Empire) | Western Europe | Europe
1888 | 1880s | 19th Century

Ottomar Anschütz is less known amongst the early inventors in cinematic history, yet his foray in chronophotography boasts sharp images, comparable, if not better, to those by Marey or Muybridge. "Horse and Rider Jumping over an Obstacle" (1888) captured the Prussian Army with military precision.



5. The Musician Monkey [Le singe musicien]
Director: Émile Reynaud
France (formerly French Republic) | Western Europe | Europe
1878 | 1870s | 19th Century

Émile Reynaud's animated work predates the successes in moving photography. ""The Musician Monkey"" (1878) is charming and simultaneously creepy in its visuals, nonetheless through its movement it announced to the world that pictures were no longer still.

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