Renowned Film Directors & Producers Codexery

Alice Guy-Blaché

First filmmaker to create a narrative fiction film.

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She is considered the first female filmmaker and one of the first directors to produce narrative fiction films.[1] From 1896 to 1920, she directed over 1,000 films, though only about 150 survive today.[2] Alice Guy was hired in 1894 as a secretary at a Paris company that manufactured cameras and other optical equipment.[3]

Life and work

After her father died in 1891, she trained as a typist and stenographer to support herself and her mother.[4] She made her first film in 1896, which may have been titled La Fée aux Choux.[5] In 1910, she co-founded The Solax Company in Flushing, New York, becoming the first woman to own her own studio.[6][7] She directed her last film in 1919 and returned to France in 1922 after her divorce.[8]

Between 1896 and 1906, Guy served as Gaumont's head of production and was likely the sole female director globally.[9] In 1907, Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché; he was soon appointed production manager for Gaumont's U.S. operations.[6] Alice Guy-Blaché passed away on 24 March 1968 at a nursing home located in Wayne.[10]

What the cited sources add

The Artforum retrospective notes that Guy trained the next generation of French filmmakers, including Étienne Arnaud and Louis Feuillade.[3] The Guardian review notes that after her divorce, Guy-Blaché was erased from film history as her films became lost.[11] An interview with documentary director Pamela Green indicates that Guy-Blaché directed what was probably the first all-African-American cast film, A Fool and His Money, in 1912.[12] Eisenstein's memoirs mention a film he saw as a child that was very important to him; this film was identified during the making of the documentary Be Natural as Alice Guy-Blaché's The Consequences of Feminism (1906).[13]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Alice Guy-Blaché", Biography.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Alice Guy-Blaché", Women Film Pioneers Project; Justin Morrow, "Alice Guy-Blaché, the World's First Female Filmmaker, Wrote, Directed, and Produced Over 700 Films", No Film School, March 9, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. "ALICE GUY BLACHÉ", Artforum, November 2009. facts only, no text reused. artforum.com
  4. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Archives de Paris, Décès 6e arr. 5 Janvier 1891 V4E5962; Le Temps, 25 February 1892, La mutualité maternelle (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dietrick 2022, p. 43-50 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché", Nfb.ca, May 2, 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Koszarski, "Fort Lee: The Film Town", John Libbey Publishing, 2004; "Fort Lee Film Commission", Fort Lee Film Commission; Fort Lee Film Commission, "Fort Lee Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry", Arcadia Publishing, 2006; "ALICE GUY BLACHÉ", Artforum, November 2009; Peter Bradshaw, "Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché review – a paean to a movie pioneer", Guardian, 15 January 2020 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McMahan 2009, p. 129 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Alice Guy Blaché – Women Film Pioneers Project", wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McMahan 1997; As reported in the margins of p. 91 of birth certificate from the city of Saint-Mandé. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Peter Bradshaw, "Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché review – a paean to a movie pioneer", Guardian, 15 January 2020. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  12. Rudy Cecera, "INTERVIEW - Pamela Green, director of "Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché"", Screen Comment, 27 February 2021. facts only, no text reused. screencomment.com
  13. Wikipedia, "Alice Guy-Blaché" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Eisenstein, "Yo. Memoirs", Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2019, p. 283, 443 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Alice Guy-Blaché (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year did Alice Guy-Blaché die?

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Not quite. The answer is 1968.

2. In which place was Alice Guy-Blaché born?

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Not quite. The answer is Saint-Mandé, France.

3. In what year was Alice Guy-Blaché born?

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Not quite. The answer is 1873.

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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