Film was made in 1895, and of course special effects were very limited and the trick is very obvious.
Anyway I found something really interesting in this short. The camera focuses on the beheading, and keeps there until the very end. I don't know any other film where that kind of scene is shown in such a crude way. If you see any modern film were someone is beheaded, they always avoid to show a first plane of the critical moment. May be they just put a black screen while you hear the axe chopping, or at most, they blur the image and after a second you may see the head rolling or in a basket but they always avoid to show a first plane of the axe or guillotine in the moment they cut the head.
Anyway I found something really interesting in this short. The camera focuses on the beheading, and keeps there until the very end. I don't know any other film where that kind of scene is shown in such a crude way. If you see any modern film were someone is beheaded, they always avoid to show a first plane of the critical moment. May be they just put a black screen while you hear the axe chopping, or at most, they blur the image and after a second you may see the head rolling or in a basket but they always avoid to show a first plane of the axe or guillotine in the moment they cut the head.