Alice Guy-Blaché
Encyclopedia
Alice Guy-Blaché 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.
where her father owned a chain of bookstores. Her mother returned home to give birth to Alice in Paris. For the first few years of her life she was left in the care of her grandmother in Switzerland
until her mother came to take her to Chile where she lived with her family for about two years. She was then sent to study at a boarding school
in France and was a young girl entering her teens when her parents returned from Chile. However, shortly thereafter, her father and brother both died.
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. Alice 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. As well, she was one of the pioneers in the use of 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.
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
, a place that was quickly becoming the film capital of America and home to many major film studios. It was commented on in publications of the era that Guy-Blaché placed a large sign in her studio reading "BE NATURAL".
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, Alice 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.
Alice Guy-Blaché never remarried and in 1964 she returned to the United States to stay with one of her daughters. She died in a nursing home in Mahwah, 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. 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.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
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 years
Alice Guy was born to French parents who were working in ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
where her father owned a chain of bookstores. Her mother returned home to give birth to Alice in Paris. For the first few years of her life she was left in the care of her grandmother in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
until her mother came to take her to Chile where she lived with her family for about two years. She was then sent to study at a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in France and was a young girl entering her teens when her parents returned from Chile. However, shortly thereafter, her father and brother both died.
Gaumont, France
In 1894 Alice Guy was hired by Léon GaumontLéon Gaumont
Léon Gaumont was a French inventor, engineer, and industrialist who was a pioneer of the motion picture industry....
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. Alice Guy decided to join the new Gaumont Film Company
Gaumont Film Company
Gaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . Gaumont is the oldest continously operating film company in the world....
, a decision that led to a pioneering career in filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
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
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
filmmaking. In 1906, she made The Life of Christ, a big budget production for the time, which included 300 extras. As well, she was one of the pioneers in the use of recordings in conjunction with the images on screen in Gaumont's "Chronophone
Sound-on-disc
The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a motion picture...
" 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 BlachéHerbert Blaché
Herbert Blaché was a British-born American film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 56 films between 1912 and 1929.Along with his wife, filmmaking pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché, he founded Solax Studios in 1910....
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
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
, a place that was quickly becoming the film capital of America and home to many major film studios. 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 CoastEast Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
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, Alice Guy-Blaché went to work for William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
'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.
Alice Guy-Blaché never remarried and in 1964 she returned to the United States to stay with one of her daughters. She died in a nursing home in Mahwah, New Jersey
Mahwah, New Jersey
Mahwah is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 25,890. The name Mahwah is derived from the Lenni Lenape word "mawewi" which means "Meeting Place" or "Place Where Paths Meet".The area that is now Mahwah was...
.
Selected filmography
- La Fée aux ChouxLa Fée aux ChouxLa Fée aux Choux is one of the earliest narrative fiction films ever made. It was probably made before the first Méliès fiction film, but after the Lumière brothers' L'Arroseur Arrosé. The confusion stems from the uncertainty in the dating of these three films...
(The Cabbage Fairy) (1896) - Surprise d'une maison au petit jour (1898)
- Sage-femme de première classe (First Class Midwife) (1902)
- La Esméralda (1905) (based on the Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
novel, The Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
) - A Fool and His MoneyA Fool and His MoneyA Fool and His Money is a 1925 silent film starring William Haines and Madge Bellamy and is based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon. The film was directed by Erle C. Kenton and was filmed before in 1920. That version starred Eugene O'Brien and Rubye De Remer....
(1912) - Algie the Miner (1912)
- Algie Making an American Citizen (1912)
- Falling Leaves (1912 film)Falling Leaves (1912 film)Falling Leaves is a 1912 American film by Alice Guy Blaché. The 2004 National Film Preservation Foundation print runs 12 minutes.- Cast :*Mace Greenleaf as Dr. Earl Headley - a Lung Specialist*Blanche Cornwall as Mrs. Griswold Thompson - the Mother...
(1912) - A House Divided (1913)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)
- Shadows of the Moulin Rouge (1913)
- Matrimony's Speed LimitMatrimony's Speed LimitMatrimony's Speed Limit is a 1913 silent comedy short film produced and directed by pioneering female film maker Alice Guy-Blaché.The story concerns a young man who refuses to accept financial assistance from his wealthy girlfriend in favor of earning his own fortune on the stock market...
(1913) - The Woman of Mystery (1914)
- My Madonna (1915)
- The Shooting of Dan McGrewThe Shooting of Dan McGrew (1915 film)The Shooting of Dan McGrew is a 1915 silent American drama film directed by Herbert Blaché, based on the poem of the same name.- Cast :* Edmund Breese as Jim Maxwell* William A. Morse as Dan McGrew* Kathryn Adams as Lou Maxwell...
(1915) - House of Cards (1917)
- The Great Adventure (1918)
- Vampire (1920)
Posthumous tributes
The Fort Lee Film Commission of Fort Lee, New JerseyFort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...
, 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
Fort Lee High School
Fort Lee High School is a four year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Fort Lee, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Fort Lee School District...
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
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
and to also secure a star for her on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
. Finally, the Fort Lee Film Commission will work to get a proper marker on the Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
, grave of Alice Guy Blaché to signify her role as a pioneer in world cinema history.
In 1995, a National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
documentary The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché told her pioneering story. 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.
External links
- official family site
- Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema
- Alice Guy at the Internet Movie Database
- Literature on Alice Guy-Blaché