The Extraordinary Voyage

Georges Méliès adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, the first film adaptation of the story. Filmed in black & white, Méliès would then paint the film by hand to colour it. Originally a 15 minute film, twelve and a half minutes of painted film have been found and have been restored.

A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.

At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.

The entire story of Christmastide is here depicted. The scene opens in a large boudoir of an apparently wealthy man's home. His children, assisted by their governess, are about to retire. Before lying down they hang up their stockings on the edge of the bed. The picture changes and night appears. We see the housetops of the town and angels are flying about depositing packages in each of the chimneys. (Edison Catalog)

A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out? Méliès based the art direction on engravings by Gustave Doré. First known example of a fairy-tale adapted to film, and the first film to use dissolves to go from one scene to another.

In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.

Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.

A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.

An account of the life of actress Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017), a true icon of the New Wave and one of the most idolized French movie stars.

A portrait of a man of rare elegance and enigmatic charm, versatile and successful: Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the most critically acclaimed French actors of the last sixty years, known for his numerous roles on stage and screen.

An account of the life and work of French filmmaker Claude Chabrol (1930-2010), a sybarite Buddha, a furtive anarchist, an insolent lover of life.

France, 1974. The erotic film Emmanuelle, directed by Just Jaeckin, breaks all records for cinema attendance: the story of the creation of a sensual epic that marked a turning point in the struggle for sexual emancipation.

An account of the life and work of Spanish actress Penélope Cruz: a long journey that began in the working-class neighborhoods of Madrid and ended in the hills of Hollywood.

Paul Merton goes in search of the origins of screen comedy in the forgotten world of silent cinema - not in Hollywood, but closer to home in pre-1914 Britain and France. Revealing the unknown stars and lost masterpieces, he brings to life the pioneering techniques and optical inventiveness of the virtuosos who mastered a new art form. With a playful eye and comic sense of timing, Merton combines the role of presenter and director to recreate the weird and wonderful world that is early European cinema in a series of cinematic experiments of his own.

Throughout the 19th century, imaginative and visionary artists and inventors brought about the advent of a new look, absolutely modern and truly cinematographic, long before the revolutionary invention of the Lumière brothers and the arrival of December 28, 1895, the historic day on which the first cinema performance took place.

A tense, filmic and high-octane drama-documentary series that brings to life the stories of people who have lived through paranormal experiences that defy explanation. Using a mixture of intimate first-hand testimony and grittily realistic drama, the audience is transported into a world turned upside down by extraordinary and terrifying events.

The story of the United States' space program, from its beginnings in 1961 to the final moon mission in 1972.

The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

For many the dream of having a bolt hole or a place to escape from their hectic lives can seem unobtainable. Architect George Clarke shows how such big dreams can be achieved in small and affordable places. George delves into the extraordinary world of small builds to meet the highly creative people who are taking tiny, unpromising spaces and creating the most incredible places to live and work and play. There are homes made out of shipping containers, horseboxes, and old buses. Others are building tiny huts or incredible treehouses in the middle of the woods.

Five programmes that trace a remarkable decade in British film-making through interviews with its stars and directors.

Alastair Sooke tells the story of Ancient Egyptian art through 30 extraordinary masterpieces.

Groundbreaking effects and filming techniques are used to show how animals perceive wildlife. Pioneering techniques reveal our lives from the animal's point of view and creatures across the landscapes from the world around them.

My Journey Through French Cinema (2017), Bertrand Tavernier’s César-nominated three-and-a-half-hour tour through French film history, was too short to introduce audiences to all that he wanted to share. In this new eight-part series (8x55min), the acclaimed director of such films as Coup de Torchon and ‘Round Midnight guides us through a roster of filmmakers both influential and forgotten, explores how his country’s cinema was shaped by the German occupation and changed again through the New Wave, spotlights little-known female filmmakers, and more. Subjects include: René Clément, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin, Claude Autant-Lara, as well as composers who made movie music an art in and of itself, far from the Hollywood spotlight.

Documentary series telling the real story behind some of the most dramatic and extraordinary calls made to emergency operators. Featuring exclusive interviews and first-hand accounts.

As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.

In 2013, Michaella McCollum from Northern Ireland and Melissa Reid from Scotland were caught at the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Peru trying to smuggle £1.5 million of cocaine into Spain. The pair, also known as the `Peru Two,' were sentenced to almost seven years in one of the most notorious prisons in the world. The series provides a first-hand account from Michaella, a former club hostess in the Spanish nightlife, as she traces her journey from arriving in the foreign country for her first holiday to her downward spiral into the illicit world of drugs and excess.

Journeying to the far reaches of our planet, this eight part series follows some of the world's most amazing species, telling extraordinary stories that are dramatic, thrilling, funny and sometimes heart-breaking, but always full of hope.

Granted unparalleled access, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan takes viewers on an adventure behind the curtains of Industrial Light & Magic, the special visual effects, animation and virtual production division of Lucasfilm. Learn what inspired some of the most legendary filmmakers in Hollywood history, and follow their stories from their earliest personal films to bringing George Lucas’ vision to life.

A provocative journey into the extraordinary lives of women from the Old and New Testament. The series explores women who rose from obscurity, slavery and prejudice to become prophets, lovers, judges, and queens who left their mark on history.