Alice Guy-Blaché

Alice Guy-Blaché
Alice Guy at the end of the nineteenth century.
Born	Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-07-01)1 July 1873 Saint-Mandé near Paris, France
Died	24 March 1968(1968-03-24) (aged 94) Wayne, New Jersey,United States
Nationality	French
Occupation	Filmmaker, film producer, film actor
Years active	1894–1922
Spouse(s)	Herbert Blaché (two children)

Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) was a French pioneer filmmaker who was the first female director in the motion-picture industry and is considered to be one of the first directors of a fiction film.

Early life and education

In the year 1873 Alice Guy’s mother lived in Santiago, Chile. While pregnant, Guy’s mother traveled to Paris, France, where she gave birth to Alice Guy. Following her birth, Guy was raised by her grandparents until the age of four. In 1877, Guy’s mother retrieved her from her grandparents and returned to Chile, where Guy met her father for the first time. In 1879, her father returned Guy to France where she was enrolled in boarding school with two of her sisters. While at boarding school, Guy’s father’s chain of bookstores became bankrupt. This tragedy forced Guy’s father to transfer her to a cheaper boarding school. After this both her father and brother died. Following her father’s death, Guy trained as a typist and got her first job as a secretary, starting her career.

Gaumont, France

In 1894 Alice Guy was hired by Léon Gaumont to work for a still-photography company as a secretary. The company soon went out of business but Gaumont bought the defunct operations inventory and began his own company that soon became a major force in the fledgling motion-picture industry in France. Guy decided to join the new Gaumont Film Company, a decision that led to a pioneering career in filmmaking spanning more than twenty-five years and involving her directing, producing, writing and/or overseeing more than 700 films.

From 1896 to 1906, Alice Guy was Gaumont's head of production and is generally considered to be the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filmmaking. In 1906, she made The Life of Christ, a big budget production for the time, which included 300 extras. In addition to this, she was one of the pioneers in the use of audio recordings in conjunction with the images on screen in Gaumont's "Chronophone" system, which used a vertical-cut disc synchronized to the film. An innovator, she employed special effects, using double exposure masking techniques and even running a film backwards.

Solax, USA

In 1907 Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché who was soon appointed the production manager for Gaumont's operations in the United States. After working with her husband for Gaumont in the USA, the two struck out on their own in 1910, partnering with George A. Magie in the formation of The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood studio in America. With production facilities for their new company in Flushing, New York, her husband served as production manager as well as cinematographer and Alice Guy-Blaché worked as the artistic director, directing many of its releases. Within two years they had become so successful that they were able to invest more than $100,000 into new and technologically advanced production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey, when many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century. It was commented on in publications of the era that Guy-Blaché placed a large sign in her studio reading "Be Natural".

Post-Solax

Alice Guy and her husband divorced several years later, and with the decline of the East Coast film industry in favour of the more hospitable and cost effective climate in Hollywood, their film partnership also ended.

Following her separation, and after Solax ceased production, Guy-Blaché went to work for William Randolph Hearst's International Film Service. She returned to France in 1922 and although she never made another film, for the next 30 years she gave lectures on film and wrote novels from film scripts. All but forgotten for decades, in 1953 the government of France awarded her the Legion of Honor.

Personal life

Alice Guy Blaché’s marriage meant that she had to resign from her position working with Gaumont. Looking for new beginnings, the couple immigrated to New York where Guy gave birth to her first daughter Simone in 1908. Two years after giving birth Guy became the first woman to run her own studio when she created Solax. During this time, Guy was pregnant with her second child, but it did not stop her from completing at least one to three films a week. To focus on writing and directing, in 1914 Guy made her husband the president of Solax. Shortly after taking the position Herbert Blaché starts his own film company. For the next few ears the couple maintained a personal and business partnership, working together on many projects. The relationship between the two did not last long. In 1918 Herbert Blaché left his wife and children to pursue a career in Hollywood with one of his actresses. Following this devastation, Guy directed her last film in 1920. While directing her last film, Guy almost passed away due to the Spanish Influenza. By 1922 Blache and Guy were officially divorced prompting Guy to auction off her film studio while claiming bankruptcy. After losing her studio, Guy returned to France in 1922 and never made a film again. Following her bankruptcy and divorce, Guy could not make a living making films. In 1927, Guy returned to the United States in an attempt to retrieve some of her old work but was unsuccessful. In 1930, Léon Gaumont, published the history of his company with no mention of any production history before 1907. This upset Guy, prompting her to write a letter to Gaumont after which he agreed to change the documents. However these changes never got published. The rest of Guy’s career and life was dedicated to her children, specifically her eldest daughter Simone, with whom she spent much of her later years. Alice Guy-Blaché never remarried and in 1964 she returned to the United States to stay with one of her daughters. On March 24, 1968 Guy died at the age of 95 while living at a nursing home. in Mahwah, New Jersey and is interred at Maryrest Cemetery.

Legacy

Alice Guy-Blaché is the first female film maker and is responsible for creating one of the first narrative films in 1896. Guy’s career of 24 years of directing, writing and producing films is the longest career of any of the cinema pioneers, From 1896 to 1920, Guy directed over 400 films, 22 of these films are feature-length features. Guy was and still is the only woman to ever manage and own her own studio, The Solax Company.

Awards

In 1953 Guy was awarded the Légion d'honneur, the highest non military award France offers. On March 16, 1957, she was honored in a Cinématheque Française ceremony that went unnoticed by the press.

The Golden Door Film Festival's Women in Film-Alice Guy Blache Award is named in her honor.

Filmography

• La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) (1896)
• Une nuit agitee (1897)
• Les Cambrioleurs (1897)
• Le Planton Du Colonel (1897)
• Le pêcheur dans le torrent (1897)
• Leçon de danse (1897)
• Le cocher de fiacre endormi (1897)
• L'aveugle (1897)
• L'arroseur arrosé (1897)
• Idylle interrompue (1897)
• En classe (1897)
• Danse fleur de lotus (1897)
• Coucher d'Yvette (1897)
• Chez le magnétiseur (1897)
• Ballet libella (1897)
• Baignade dans le torrent (1897)
• Au réfectoire (1897)
• France et Russie (1897)
• Scène d'escamotage (1898)
• L'utilité des rayons x (1898)
• Les farces de Jocko (1898)
• L'entrée à Jérusalem (1898)
• Le jardin des oliviers (1898)
• Leçons de boxe (1898)
• Le chemin de croix (1898)
• L'aveugle fin de siècle (1898)
• La fuite en Égypte (1898)
• Surprise d'une maison au petit jour (1898)
• La flagellation (1898)
• La crèche à Bethléem (1898)
• La cène (1898)
• Je vous y prrrrends! (1898)
• Jésus devant Pilate (1898)
• Déménagement à la cloche de bois (1898)
• Un lunch (1899)
• Transformations (1899)
• Monnaie de lapin (1899)
• Mésaventure d'un charbonnier (1899)
• Le tonnelier (1899)
• Le tondeur de chiens (1899)
• Les dangers de l'alcoolisme (1899)
• Le déjeuner des enfants (1899)
• Le crucifiement (1899)
• Le chiffonnier (1898)
• L'aveugle (1899)
• La résurrection (1899)
• La mauvaise soupe (1899)
• La descente de croix (1899)
• La bonne absinthe (1899)
• Erreur judiciaire (1899)
• Danse serpentine par Mme. Bob Walter (1899)
• Courte échelle (1899)
• Au cabaret (1899)
• Valse lente (1900)
• Une rage de dents (1900)
• Suite de la danse (1900)
• Saut humidifié de M. Plick (1900)
• Retour des champs (1900)
• Pas Japonais (1900)
• Pas du poignard (1900)
• Pas des éventails (1900)
• Pas de grâce (1900)
• Mort d'Adonis (1900)
• Little Tich et ses 'Big Boots' (1900)
• L'Habanera (1900)
• Le sang d'Adonis donnant naissance à la rose rouge (1900)
• Le Polichinelle (1900)
• Le matelot (1900)
• Le marchand de coco (1900)
• Le matelot (1900)
• Le lapin (1900)
• Le départ d'Arlequin et de Pierrette (1900)
• Le danse des saisons (1900)
• L'écossaise (1900)
• Leçon de danse (1900)
• Le bébé (1900)
• La tarentelle (1900)
• La source (1900)
• L'arléquine (1900)
• La reine des jouets (1900)
• La poupée noire (1900)
• La petite magicienne (1900)
• La paysanne (1900)
• L'angélus (1900)
• La fée aux choux, ou la naissance des enfants (1900)
• La danse du ventre (1900)
• Gavotte directoire (1900)
• Déclaration d'amour (1900)
• Dans les coulisses (1900)
• Danse serpentine (1900)
• Danse du voile (1900)
• Danse du pas des foulards par des almées (1900)
• Danse du papillon (1900)
• Dance de l'ivresse (1900)
• Coucher d'une Parisienne (1900)
• Chirurgie fin de siècle (1900)
• Chez le photographe (1900)
• Chez le Maréchal-Ferrant (1900)
• Chapellerie et charcuterie mécanique (1900)
• Bataille de boules de neige (1900)
• Badinage (1900)
• Avenue de l'opéra (1900)
• Au bal de Flore (1900)
• Arrivée de Pierette et Pierrot (1900)
• Arrivée d'Arléquin (1900)
• Tel est pris qui croyait prendre (1901)
• Scène d'ivresse (1901)
• Scène d'amour (1901)
• Pas de colombine (1901)
• Lecture quotidienne (1901)
• Lavatory moderne (1901)
• Hussards et grisettes (1901)
• Frivolité (1901)
• Danses basques (1901)
• Charmant froufrou (1901)
• A Peculiar Cabinet (1902)
• Trompé mais content (1902)
• Midwife to the Upper Classes (1902)
• Quadrille réaliste (1902)
• Pour secouer la salade (1902)
• Les malabares, acrobats (1902)
• Sage-femme de première classe (First Class Midwife) (1902)
• Les clowns (1902)
• Les chiens savants (1902)
• L'équilibriste (1902)
• Le pommier (1902)
• Le marchand de ballons (1902)
• Le lion savant (1902)
• La première gamelle (1902)
• La gigue (1902)
• La fiole enchantée (1902)
• La dent recalcitrante (1902)
• La cour des miracles (1902)
• Intervention malencontreuse (1902)
• Farces de cuisinière (1902)
• En faction (1902)
• Danse mauresque (1902)
• Danse fantaisiste (1902)
• Danse excentrique (1902)
• Bonsoir m'sieurs dames (1902)
• Fruits de saison (1902)
• Service précipité (1903)
• Secours aux naufragés (1903)
• Répétition dans un cirque (1903)
• Potage indigeste (1903)
• Nos bons étudiants (1903)
• Ne bougeons plus (1903)
• Modelage express (1903)
• Lutteurs américains (1903)
• Le voleur sacrilège (1903)
• Les surprises de l'affichage (1903)
• Les braconniers (1903)
• Les aventures d'un voyageur trop pressé (1903)
• Les apaches pas veinards (1903)
• Le liqueur du couvent (1903)
• Le fiancé ensorcelé (1903)
• La valise enchantée (1903)
• La poule fantaisiste (1903)
• La main du professeur Hamilton ou le roi des dollars (1903)
• La chasse au cambrioleur (1903)
• Jocko musicien (1903)
• Illusionniste renversant (1903)
• Faust et Méphistophélès (1903)
• Enlèvement en automobile et mariage précipité (1903)
• Compagnons de voyage encombrants (1903)
• Comme on fait son lit on se couche (1903)
• How Monsieur Takes His Bath (1903)
• Cake-walk de la pendule (1903)
• Paris la nuit (1904)
• L'oiseau envolé (1904)
• Les enfants du miracle (1904)
• Les deux rivaux (1904)
• Le pompon malencontreux (1904)
• Le crime de la Rue du Temple (1904)
• L'assassinat du courrier de Lyon (1904)
• La leçon de pipeau (1904)
• La gavotte de la reine (1904)
• Comment on disperse les foules (1904)
• Après la fête (1904)
• Pierrot, Murderer (1904)
• La première cigarette (1904)
• V'la le rétameur (1905)
• Viens, poupoule (1905)
• Valsons (1905)
• Si ça t'va (1905)
• Saharet, boléro (1905)
• Réhabilitation (1905)
• Polin, l'anatomie du conscrit (1905)
• Miss Helyett: Air du portrait (1905)
• Lilas blanc (1905)
• Dranem Performs 'The True Jiu-Jitsu' (1905)
• My Quay's Hole (1905)
• Le tango (1905)
• Les p'tits pois (1905)
• Les maçons (1905)
• Le rire du nègre (1905)
• Le petit panier (1905)
• Le petit Grégoire (1905)
• L'enfant du cordonnier (1905)
• Le coq dressé de Cook et Rilly (1905)
• Le boléro cosmopolite (1905)
• La statue (1905)
• La polka des trottins (1905)
• La paimpolaise (1905)
• La mattchiche (1905)
• La malagueña et le torero (1905)
• La fifille à sa mère (1905)
• La charité du prestidigitateur (1905)
• Jeune homme et le trottin (1905)
• Five O'Clock Tea (1905)
• Être légume (1905)
• Espagne (1905)
• Esmeralda (1905)
• Cucurbitacée (1905)
• Clown, chien et ballon (1905)
• Chez le dentiste (1905)
• C'est une ingénue (1905)
• Cake-walk nègre (1905)
• Allumeur-Marche (1905)
• À la cabane bambou (1905)
• Un soulier pour un jambon (1906)
• Une histoire roulante (1906)
• Une course d'obstacle (1906)
• Un cas de divorce (1906)
• Questions indiscrètes (1906)
• Mireille (1906)
• The Consequences of Feminism (1906)
• Le songe du pêcheur (1906)
• Le Noël de Monsieur le curé (1906)
• Le fils du garde-chasse (1906)
• Le cochon de lait (1906)
• The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906)
• La vérité sur l'homme-singe (1906)
• La hiérarchie dans l'amour (1906)
• The Irresistible Piano (1907)
• L'enfant de la barricade (1907)
• Le ballon dirigeable 'Le patrie' (1907)
• The Glue (1907)
• Fanfan la Tulipe (1907)
• Fanfan la Tulipe (1907)
• Une héroïne de quatre ans (1907)
• One Touch of Nature (1908)
• The Sergeant's Daughter (1910)
• A Child's Sacrifice (1910)
• A Fateful Gift (1910)
• A Widow and Her Child (1910)
• Her Father's Sin (1910)
• What Is to Be, Will Be (1910)
• Lady Betty's Strategy (1910)
• Two Suits (1910)
• The Pawnshop (1910)
• The Nightcap (1911)
• The Girl and the Burglar (1911)
• A Reporter's Romance (1911)
• His Best Friend (1911)
• Ring of Love (1911)
• Mixed Pets (1911)
• Corinne in Dollyland (1911)
• Love's Test (1911)
• A Costly Pledge (1911)
• Out of the Arctic (1911)
• Put Out (1911)
• La Esméralda (1905) (based on the Victor Hugo novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
• A Fool and His Money (1912)
• Algie the Miner (1912)
• Algie Making an American Citizen (1912)
• Falling Leaves (1912 film) (1912)
• A House Divided (1913)
• The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)
• Shadows of the Moulin Rouge (1913)
• Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)
• The Woman of Mystery (1914)
• The Tigress (1914)
• The Lure (1914)
• My Madonna (1915)
• The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1915)
• House of Cards (1917)
• Behind the Mask (1917)
• House of Cards (1917)
• A Man and a Woman (1917)
• The Great Adventure (1918)
• A Soul Adrift (1919)
• Vampire (1920)
• Tarnished Reputations (1920)

Posthumous tributes

The Fort Lee Film Commission of Fort Lee, New Jersey, has worked with Alice Guy Blaché biographer Alison McMahan to create one of the only existing historic markers dedicated to the role Alice Guy Blaché played as the first woman film director and studio owner. The marker is located on Lemoine Avenue adjacent to the Fort Lee High School and on the site of Solax Studio. The Fort Lee Film Commission is currently at work with other organizations to gain Alice Guy Blaché entry in the Directors Guild of America and to also secure a star for her on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Finally, the Fort Lee Film Commission will work to get a proper marker on the Bergen County, New Jersey, grave of Alice Guy Blaché to signify her role as a pioneer in world cinema history.

In 1995, a National Film Board of Canada documentary The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché told her pioneering story, and received Quebec's Gemeaux Award for Best Documentary. In 2002, film scholar Alison McMahan published Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema.

In 2011, an off Broadway production of FLIGHT premiered at the Connelly Theatre, featuring a fictionalized portrayal of Alice Guy-Blaché as a 1913 documentary filmmaker.

In its second year (2012) the Golden Door Film Festival in Jersey City inaugurated the Women in Film- Alice Guy Blache Award.

See also

• Women's cinema

Bibliography

• Kevin Thomas. (2002, August 15). Book Review; Research Sheds New Light on Cinema Pioneer :[Home Edition]. [review of the Los Angeles Times,p. 2.
• McMahan, Alison J. (1997). Madame a des envies (Madam has her cravings): A critical analysis of the short films of Alice Guy Blache, the first woman filmmaker. Ph.D. dissertation, The Union Institute, United States—Ohio, from Dissertations & Theses: A&I.(Publication No. AAT 9817949).
• Davis, Amanda. (2000, July 31). Edited Out: Women in film history. Women's Times,p. 14
• McMahan, Alison. Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema. New York: Continuum, 2002. Print.
• McMahan, Alison. "Alice Guy Blache The Research & Books of Alison Mcmahan." Aliceguyblache.com. Homunculus Productions. Web. <http://www.aliceguyblache.com>.
• "Alice Guy Blache." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 4 May 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349785>

External links

• official family site
• Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema
• Alice Guy at the Internet Movie Database
• Falling Leaves is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Literature on Alice Guy-Blaché
• Watch The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché at the National Film Board of Canada
• http://www.aliceguyblache.com/chronology Key events in the life of Alice Guy-Blaché]