Tristan has been the grateful viewer of many an eye-popping restoration from Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam on YouTube. He expresses his thanks to Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Curator of Silent Film at Eye, before the two mostly discuss comedy films, with the broad genre nevertheless inspiring many different tangents from sexuality to the beginning of the film industry’s self-parody.

Elif has worked on the discovery, restoration, and presentation of presumed lost films starring forgotten or neglected actresses such as Rosa Porten, Little Chrysia, Valeria Creti, and Constance Talmadge. She is directly involved with the programs of international archival festivals Il Cinema Ritrovato and Le Giornate del Cinema Muto and other events dedicated to silent cinema. Elif is also one of three curators of Cinema's First Nasty Women, a DVD box set of 99 films.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1901!

Films mentioned:

• What Is Seen Through a Keyhole - Ferdinand Zecca (1901)
• The Countryman and the Cinematograph - Robert W. Paul (1901)
• Arrosage général - Ambroise-François Parnaland (1901)
• The Finish of Bridget McKeen - Edwin S. Porter (1901)
• De Maasbrug te Rotterdam Omstreeks 1901 - unknown (1901)
• Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1927)
• Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show - Edwin S. Porter (1902)
• The Sprinkler Sprinkled - Louis Lumière (1895)