Alice Guy-Blaché
As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic revisionist history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.
The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.
The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.
Selection of hand-painted films made from serpentine dance performances between 1895 and 1907, with original music by Carol Robinson. Produced for ARTE / Lobster Films.
A 3 Part Collection of More Than 75 Early Films by Alice Guy, Louis Feuillade and Léonce Perret. The invention of cinema—and its growth into a sophisticated art form—are vividly brought to life in this massive collection of films from the early years of the influential Gaumont Film Company. Each disc is devoted to one of Gaumont’s artistic directors, who oversaw all film production at the studio, and profoundly influenced not only the identity of the studio but also the evolution of the cinema itself.
A biodoc about the first female filmmaker and her relative disappearance from the history of cinema.
The Mannings are a professional couple--she's a doctor, he's a lawyer--who are so absorbed in their careers that they have little time for their young daughter Louise, who is basically left to be raised by their servants. They're shaken out of their single-minded pursuit of their careers when Louise--feeling neglected, unloved and unhappy--runs away with a young newsboy.
A young girl is trying to live an honest life in a crooked city. Caught up with a crook that might be the son of a millionaire and other crooked people, she must attempt to reform things, or at least one person.
An abused young woman finds safety and love in the arms of a famous novelist.
The Vampire is a surviving 1915 silent film drama directed by Alice Guy and starring Olga Petrova. It is one of Petrova's and Guy's few surviving silent films.
In this story the hero is haunted by a beautiful young woman who tries to stab him to death with a knife. This fantasy recurs on each of his birthdays, becoming more and more real as the years go on. He leaves home to secure a place as groom, but arrives at his destination too late. Forced to retrace his steps, he seeks shelter in a little inn, forgetting that the hour of his birth is approaching. In the middle of the night he awakens, terrified with fright… Based on Wilkie Collins' novel “The Dream Woman”.
Mr. Bruce wins at cards but spends the night desperately trying to protect his winnings from the crooked casino owners.
Norma, a dancer, receives many presents from admirers. Among them she finds a peculiar looking box, out of which spring several poisonous snakes. Nelson, a detective, is called upon to solve the mystery.
Heroine Stella is not a "tigress" at all, but instead a loving wife and mother. All this changes when the despotic and rapacious Governor of Euturia, whose sexual overtures have been spurned by Stella, orders that her husband be executed and her child kidnapped.
Mrs. Hurley is a wealthy old lady who is rather proud of her antecedents. Her son, a young, clean-cut, college-bred man, like other gilded youths, makes the acquaintance of an actress and the inevitable follows. He marries her, much against the commands of his mother. He neglects her for the companionship of a rather smart and fast set in society. The pace they set is rather strong, and after weeks of gambling and dissipation, he finds himself separated from his wife and position. His wife, now burdened with a child, is forced to seek employment.
A man must marry by noon or lose his inheritance. It's 11:50 a.m. and he can't find his fiancée.
A married couple, suspecting one another of infidelity, decide to "live separately together."
Proud old Major Neal disowns his only child, a beautiful girl, because he considers her marriage a misalliance. Years pass. The old major becomes a recluse feared by all. One morning, a hamper is found beneath the Major's covered driveway.The hamper contains a baby girl.
Daisy Jones had been married just a year when her husband failed to kiss her one morning, and she decided that he did not love her any more.
Alice Guy's version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. This film is partially lost.
Dick, a young boy hears wondrous tales of London, where the streets are paced with gold. At night he dreams of the capital. The next day he leaves his country home to see his fortune in London. He fails to find work at first and is almost starving when a wealthy sea-merchant takes him in as a cook's help. The cook takes an instant dislike to him and tortures him mercilessly. His garret is full of rats and he often goes without food. One day, a man on the street takes him for a beer and gives him a coin, which he uses to buy a cat.
Two mediocre detectives try and catch a notorious pickpocket. Meanwhile, an innocent man is mistaken for the pickpocket and is forced to put on a disguise to evade capture.
A spoof of Sherlock Holmes who was quite popular at the time. Directed by Alice Guy-Blache for Solax Film Company.
A white girl, living with her father at the barracks near an Indian reservation, is very kind to a half-breed Indian. He falls in love with her but she does not encourage him. However, she one day is about to accept a trinket from him, when one of the soldiers, who is also in love with her, intimates something that does not sound nice to a good girl's ears.
At a large factory, the workers decide to strike. Although the leader of the workers believes his boss is treating them unfairly, the strike movement spirals out of control.
A remake for the US market of Alice Guy's Les Résultats du féminisme. The film is considered to be lost.
When Algie Allmore asks to marry Clarice, the young woman's father gives him one year to prove that he's a man.
It's early autumn and Dr. Headley eagerly demonstrates what seems to be a miraculous cure for tuberculosis. Not far from where he is working, the disease seems preparing to soon claim yet another life, a teenage girl named Winifred. Winifred's mother and little sister Trixie are devastated. When Trixie hears the family doctor say of Winifred that "when the last leaf falls, she will have passed away," she interprets the doctor's words literally. Thinking over what she has heard, she determines to do everything possible to save her sister.
The boy Is a bachelor of thirty who by diligence and perseverance is on the road to success. The boy's success gains him introduction into fashionable and aristocratic circles. He meets the girl and falls In love with her. She Is selfish, proud, snobbish, and has a great contempt for her social inferiors. The girl treats the mother like a servant, and rebukes her severely when she accidentally spills some sugar on her dress. The old mother bursts into tears. The boy resents his fiancee's treatment of his mother. She is furious that he should take sides against her, and In a rage demands that he choose between them. He hesitates a moment between the old love and the new, and then folds his old mother in his arms.
A young man of high social position sacrifices his home and family for a girl of the stage. Cast off by his family, the young man finds that he is not qualified to earn his living. In the meanwhile his wife grows ill, a child is born, and several years after, the man finds himself in narrow straits. He prepares to go out and burglarize a place. His child enters when he leaves his revolver on the table. The child plays with it as with a toy and then innocently removes the bullets. The father comes back and takes the revolver and goes out. Accidentally, the son breaks into his own father's office. The father happens to be working late that night. The son breaks in, tries to shoot his own father. By the intervention of God, the son is saved from a patricide.
"Wild Bill" Gray is a renegade and a wife-beater. He is about to start on some expedition of crime and his wife implores him to stay at home. She receives a beating for her trouble. Jim, a cowboy, rides past the shack, hears Mrs. Gray's screams and interferes, and takes Mrs. Gray over to his friend, the postmaster, so that she may have a good home. "Wild Bill" plans vengeance. Paxton, the postmaster, starts for the station with money and gold, and is accompanied a short way by Jim. Gray sneaks after them. After going with Paxton a short distance, Jim takes a turn in the road and Paxton rides on alone. Gray closes up on the postmaster, gets the drop on him, but Paxton is quick and there's a hand-to-hand struggle. Bill, however, worsts Paxton, and finally sends him over a precipice. But in falling, Paxton falls into a tree and thus is saved from sure death.
The story involves a man who goes to a gambling den regardless of the protestations of his wife. He is extremely lucky and his luck attracts attention. Strangers become friendly with him and he being a "good feller," "sets up" the crowd. After the night's playing, he is advised by the owner of the den that it would be hazardous for him to attempt going home alone with so much cash on his person. Chance decides to remain over night. He is shown to a room. During the night, he not only finds that he has been trapped, but an attempt is made on his life. (Moving Picture World)
Peggy Wilson has recently become an orphan and a ward of the Waston family. She’s also inherited the late Robert Wilson’s vast fortune, which puts her very much in Mr. Waston’s favor. He would like his son, Frank, to marry Peggy, but Peggy “is not his style” and “her money is no inducement”.
A Jewish man is treated poorly by a member of the upper-class. When tragedy strikes, the Jewish man has an opportunity for revenge, but he turns the other cheek.
Moving Picture World (October 5, 1912) claims, "Sam Jones is a laborer, a wielder of the white-wash brush. He's in love with Lindy Williams. Having saved up quite a little money, Sam buys some swell second-hand clothes and goes to Lindy's home. Lindy's people are quite prosperous, her father having retired from his job as Public Porter." A FOOL AND HIS MONEY is one of the oldest extant films to feature an all-black cast.
A recent immigrant learns several hard lessons about how husbands in America are expected to behave.
The Professor will not allow his daughter to marry a non-musician, but Billy, her would-be suitor, cannot play a single note. When he is about to give up, Billy’s roommate suggests bluffing his way into the Professor’s favor with the aid of a suitably musical disguise and a well-hidden phonograph player.
When Kitty's family adopts a homeless dog they couldn't guess how much it would be of help in her fathers detective work.
A man mistakes a woman's blown kisses as being directed at him. When he comes over to call on her, she attempts to shoo him away, but must hide him when her husband comes home unexpectedly.
Old Joel Smith is charged with murder in the first degree. At the trial he pleads in opposition to his own lawyers. He explains that he is now too old to be of any assistance to his widowed daughter and his grand-children who are dependent on him for support. He says he prefers death to a life of poverty and wretchedness. In telling the judge and jury his pathetic story (which is shown on the screen) old Joel betrays a love for his grandchildren and his fellow laborers that is poignant with pathos.
Vinnie, Colonel Beggs' daughter, complains to her father that Lieutenant Sterling is paying her unwelcome attentions. The Colonel assures his daughter that she has no cause for fear. He immediately forgets the incident, as important military developments occupy his time. But soon Vinnie has a more serious complaint, and the Colonel is forced to act.
A suffragette gets her husband drunk, leading to an escalating parade of mishaps as more people get drunk on their "lime juice."
A father who is determined his daughter should marry a count leading the boyfriend to dress up as the count to thwart his plans.
Paul Wellard is leaving home for the city. He goes to say good-bye to his mother and finds her at the organ singing her favorite hymn. For a while he prospers very well in the city, but finally gets in bad company, gambles, steals and loses his position. Unable to secure another position he becomes desperate and seeing the opportunity, he enters a house and is filling his pockets with valuable jewelry when he hears someone coming.
A woman plans to dress her fiancé as a heroic tramp in order to impress her father, but a real tramp intervenes in his place.
A Spanish girl is sent to spy on the American troops but she falls in love with the lieutenant and tries to rescue him after he is captured.
A young couple is trying to get together while the girl's father is trying to break them up.
A parson arrives in the midst of a bunch of wild cowboys. Expecting a male parson, the boys set out in full force to receive him, but on the road when they suddenly run into the one-horse shay of a female parson, they keel over in surprise. Right after her arrival the boys begin to lay plans to get in right, while the parson loses no time in starting a campaign for the defeat of Satan. She begins by posting a sign near the town horse trough to the effect that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." Of course the boys see the sign and immediately there is a sudden disposition among them to make use of soap, water and brush. One cowboy in particular is very much in love with the parson. He shows his affection only too plainly, and so the boys decide to play a trick on him. Their practical joke unintentionally is not only the means of frustrating a plot against the parson, but it brings the parson and her lover together.
Mixed Pets is an early Alice Guy Blaché comedy about misunderstandings that arise when a new husband refuses to buy his new wife a dog and the couples’ domestic help conceal the fact they are married with a baby. Puppies and babies become mixed up in cabinets as everyone tries to hide their adored ‘pets.’ The film is enormously funny and shows a poignant understanding of people’s joys and foibles as well as a perceptive grasp of relationships, a Guy Blaché trademark.
A girl saves her sweetheart from the dealings of a deceitful gang that he has fallen in with.
M. Dona appears in this Alice Guy film where he performs the title song.
An impecunious chap is unable to pay his rent, whereupon he is ejected, but all his furniture is retained and he is allowed to remove only his rolling bed. Pulling this a few blocks, he is exhausted and lies down on the bed to rest. He is soon the center of attraction, and the crowd continues to gather, when the police order him away, and as he refuses to move he is started off by the officers, who guide him for a time, but are forcibly deterred by indignant citizens from further interference. The impecunious man and his bed, which gains momentum as it runs down the inclines, cause much excitement en route, and finally arrive at the business center, where it comes to a stop alongside the walk. Our friend has purloined a fur coat and an auto horn on his tour, and now presents a modern chauffeur. (Gaumont catalogue)
During the French Revolution, a boy runs across trouble at the barricade.
Rich man rewards a tramp for defending him from muggers. Nobody can cash the big bill the tramp is carrying; comical misadventures.
A man dancing at a party finds one of his socks has fallen down. Retreating where no one can see him, he removes the offending item. the consequences are not long in coming in this very short -- two minutes -- comedy from Alice Guy.
A balding man drinks a whole bottle of hair tonic. The unexpected surplus of hair promises a successful showbiz career for him and his wife.
A pretty maid is out walking and encounters a series of military men, starting with a private, who lose her to higher ranks.
The stations of Christ's life are segmented into a series of performative tableaux.
It's a society in which gender roles are switched. Will men stand to be unequal?
A beautiful minimalist string score accompanies this sweet little film. A couple bring an old lady into their home to help her shelter from the thick falling snow, but it turns out to be a fairy who grants them a wish. This uses some effective reverse photography and the simple story works well.
A lady uses her maid to lick her stamps, when an overtly excited man notices the maid, forcibly kisses her, and they wind up stuck to each other.
Behind-the-scenes footage showing Alice Guy directing an early sound film.
Alice Guy directed a now lost phonoscene (film that relied on a chronophone sound recording that the actors in the film lip-synced with) version of Faust in 22 scenes(or short films) totaling 1245 meter of film. What remains are mostly postcards containing images of some of the scenes. The earliest proof of this film dates from 1905, as it was shown in a Phono Chronomegaphone Theatre in Belgium(stating it had 5 acts and 8 tableaux). The captions of the postcards refer to lines taken from the opera libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré for the 1859 Opera by Charles Gounod(which again was loosely based on Goethe's play) which the film was based on.
Félix Mayol performs The Trottins Polka (La Polka des Trottins, by A. Trebitsch and H. Christine) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Mayol, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Felix Mayol performs Théodore Botrel's 'Lilas-blanc'.
A man stops to have his shoes polished by a young boy. A woman, passing by, has her garter slip to the ground. She replaces it, raising her skirt to do so; the boy is distracted.
A magician transforms a tiny dinner table into a full meal for a homeless man.
Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Cute one-trick doggie show. The backdrop is beautifully detailed, yet the illusion of depth is humorously broken by the balloon bouncing off the set.
A hapless man tries to get undressed only to find himself magically layered in even more clothes.
A re-telling of the classic tale of Faust in all of two minutes by French filmmaker Alice Guy.
A wonderful midwife helps a rich couple pick out a baby from her cabbage patch.
Tribe from India do various acrobatic exercises. Some dance on a rope stretched at the end of two bamboos stuck in the ground, carry on their head in perfect balance a pile of earthenware vessels. Others climb like monkeys with a surprising agility, perform the dance of GUYARATIS birds, scratch their heads, peck the ground.
The fairy at a cabbage patch hovers over the babies. This is a remake of Guy's 1896 film on the same subject, this time shot in 35 mm.
"This funny individual will make you laugh until your sides ache. He is funny in all his actions, yet when he puts on his shoes you can imagine the noise he can make when he dances an ordinary clog. The shoes referred to are made of some elastic material which enables Little Tich to bow almost to the floor without bending his legs, the spring in the shoes carrying him down and up again. He places his hat on the floor and, leaning over on the toes of his wonderful shoes, dips his head into the hat and comes up without having to move from the spot or to bend his legs. He is a comical looking sight at best, being made up to suit the part, and he will make you laugh whether you want to or not."
Columbine resists Pierrette's courting in favour of Harlequin in this hand-coloured short by Alice Guy.
A dancer personifying Winter, dances in the snow.
A machine churns out sausages on one side and spits out hats on the other.
A turn-of-the-last-century hand-tinted short, which features two women, Miss Lally and Miss Julyett, dancing at a ball. By the legendary French filmmaker Alice Guy.
George Mélies made a version of this a few years later, often titled Une Indigestion, but Guy-Blaché’s earlier film Chirurgie Fin de Siecle (1900) is more widely available. And it’s not one to watch the night before an operation. In this clinic, a sign pleads “On est prie de ne pas crier/Please do not cry”, and the doctors set about the patient with saws, cheerily hacking off limbs, and then slopping them into a bucket, all the while arguing ferociously with each other. They then reattach arms and legs from a bucket of “exchange pieces” (using glue) before re-animating their victim, I mean patient, with bellows. (from http://silentlondon.co.uk/2015/01/23/10-disgusting-moments-in-silent-cinema/)
A boy is fishing in a stream when some others see an opportunity for mischief.
A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages.
