This film by Edwin Porter is well known for the now unsettling narrative style.  The film consists of a fire rescue which is seen from inside the building.  Then the camera cuts and the entire rescue scene starts over, this time shot from outside.

Shot only a year later, also by Porter, The Great Train Robbery uses intercutting techniques that compress time and space and exemplify simultanaity of action.  This style would become the norm for narrative film.  It did very well at the box office.