Why You Should Know About Alice Guy-Blaché
- K.J. Griffith
- Feb 11, 2022
- 5 min read
A popular critique of the film industry today deals a lot with female representation in front of, and behind the camera. It is hard to believe that women have not been in the industry since day one. But here is what the books don't tell you: there was a woman who was there when film began and became one of the "greats" of film.
Meet Alice Guy-Blaché. She was a French-American film director during the early years of film (1890's-1920's). Her work in the industry holds an extreme amount of importance, but she is not included in history books even today. So consider this post a crash course on Alice Guy-Blaché! Here are six reasons why you should know about the mother of cinema.
She was First Woman to Create Narrative Fiction Films
Alice Guy didn’t start out in her career as a filmmaker, mainly because film as we know it hadn’t been invented yet. She was trained as a stenographer and worked for the Gaumont company as the personal secretary for Leon Gaumont. Because the company primarily worked as a camera manufacturing company, Gaumont and Guy were invited to see the first ever film projection. This private screening started an entire industry, something Gaumont saw he had to try it for himself. Because of Guy's position at the Gaumont company, she was given the opportunity to use this new technology.
Guy was one of the first people to recognize that film cameras could do more than record everyday life as it happened. If these cameras could record anything, why not stories? She created her first film La Fee aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) shown below. The earliest found copy is from 1896, though there has been some confusion in previous years on when the date exactly was (for a long time the only copy that was known to exist was from 1900).
This could potentially be the first narrative film, although film historians do argue over what film was first (many books argue it was Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903) or even an earlier Lumiere brother's film from the mid 1890's.) Because early film was considered a parlor trick, there's no definitive way of knowing. We do know though that Guy was at least the first woman to create a narrative film.
Alice was the First (and only) Woman Director in the Very Early Days of Film
From 1890’s on, Alice Guy (Alice Guy-Blaché after she married Herbert Blaché) continued to direct hundreds of silent films throughout multiple genres. Guy became the first woman director of narrative films. In fact, she was the only woman director for many years into the 20th century.
She was the director behind almost 1,000 films; mostly short films from the silent era. She also directed a handful of feature length films later in her career. She worked in multiple genres, from drama to comedy. If she found there was a story to tell, she would tell it. Because of her own progress in the film industry, Alice Guy-Blaché made way for other women directors; including her own protégé, Lois Weber, in the 1910's.
She was the First Woman to Open her own Movie Studio
Before Hollywood existed, there was Fort Lee, New Jersey. Many of the silent film studios started in this town that neighbored New York City. Before the industry moved to Hollywood, Guy-Blaché owned a film studio called Solax Studios. She created the company in 1910, and built a permanent studio in Fort Lee in 1912. She became the first woman to be a majority owner of a film studio.
Guy-Blaché was also artistic director and the director for many of its films, while her then husband Herbert Blaché managed production for the new company. The studio was created as an all-in-one operation. They could use the same building from pre, all the way to post production. The space included a processing laboratory, a stage with a glass roof (for lighting purposes), and even a sewing room. For the time, it was state of the art.
She Promoted Naturalistic Acting Before it was Popular
Naturalism's beginnings in film is normally accredited to the French New Wave in the 1950's, however, Guy-Blaché tended to use naturalism in her films, specifically her dramas. It is noted in Solax history that above one of the doorways was a large sign reading , "Be Natural."
Silent film stars tended to over act to make up for the lack of dialogue. The statement, “Be Natural” was a way for Guy-Blaché to remind actors and storytellers that the stories needed to feel real on camera. Films like Falling Leaves (shown below) have a feeling of realism to them, even though there is not a single word said. There is a power to Guy-Blaché's films that shines through and feels timeless.
Alice was the First Director to use Only Black Actors for a Narrative Film
In 1912, Solax Studios made a short film titled, A Fool And His Money directed by Alice Guy-Blaché. It is believed to be the first narrative film ever made with an all black acting troup.
The story is about a young worker named Sam who is in love with a woman named Lindy. He is rejected because by Lindy and her family because he is a poor laborer. After being rejected, he finds a lost wallet on the street stuffed with money. Seeing this as a stroke of luck, he buys himself new clothes and a car to woo Lindy. The film is shown below here:
If you ended up watching this short film, it's definitely not a film that would pass the DuVernay test. Looking at the early days of cinema though, it represented black people a lot better than most. Remember: this is the time when Birth of a Nation was created, additionally some of the most racist films of Edison’s created. Blackface was also something that was popular to do at the time instead of hiring black actors, which makes Guy-Blaché’s choice even more bold during the early ages of film.
She Called for Representation in History
Near the end of the 1910’s, it wasn’t looking so good for Solax or Alice. The studio she founded went into bankruptcy after an ugly divorce paired with Edison’s monopoly of film on the east coast. Guy-Blaché stepped back from filmmaking for some time, moving back to France for a while. When she found out that someone was trying to create an official history book about the early filmmaking industry, she decided to come back and correct the things that were wrong. There were many inaccuracies in the book that practically erased her from history. Her studio, and many of her films were credited to her ex husband and other male coworkers. She never received any directing credit, and the few she was credited with were films she either wasn’t a part of or was not pleased to be a part of.
Guy-Blaché dedicated the rest of her life teaching others about the real history of film, along with trying to correct history and claim the copyrights to her own films. After she passed in 1968, her daughter continued on the mission to correct history.
With everything she has done in the early days of cinema, why is Alice Guy-Blaché not a talked about artist in the film industry? To put it simply, history belongs to those who write it, and Alice was not given the chance to be a part of it. This why today she is still not in the history books, even though many people have been showing her work and speaking on what she did for the industry. So we should honor her memory by talking about her work and supporting other women in key roles behind the camera. We have been here since day one, and the history needs to reflect that fact.
If you want to learn more, check out this recent documentary by Pamela B. Green called Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché. It's a great watch for anyone who wants to learn more about this great director. The trailer is shown below.
Available on Amazon Prime, Youtube, and Kanopy.
Sources:
Comments