I figured I would just flip through this (largely) picture book and it would be a quick read. But right there, at the beginning of motion picture history, I was, like, "Hold the phone there, Andrew, this is amazing."
The book is laid out in a timeline of film history and features the women who had a role in the movie business. Of course, one needs a reference point, so it talks about Edison and his first film in 1895. It lasted 30 seconds and featured a man in the lead role of Mary, Queen of Scots.
It was just one year later when the first woman director appeared on the scene.
Frenchwoman Alice Guy-Blaché began her career as a secretary at a camera manufacturing and film supply company in Paris. Not content with her role as typist-stenographer, she began to familiarize herself with clients, marketing strategies and cameras. She rubbed shoulders with film pioneers like Georges Demeny and the Lumiére brothers.
Alice managed to convince her employer, L. Gaumont et Cie, to let her craft one or two short plays for the entertainment of her friends. Pitched this way, she was able to try out her newly formed skills, an amazing feat given her gender and youth -- she was 23 years old.
And so it was that in 1896, Alice directed The Cabbage Fairy, the first of over 1,000 motion pictures she made over the course of her career.
Alice was a pioneer in filmmaking. She foresaw that the novelty of random images on the screen would wear off, and that telling a story was key. She also experimented with sound and special effects, such as running a film in reverse (or slowed down or accelerated), doing double exposures and creating fade-outs.
In addition to director, Alice held the roles of writer, producer and cinematographer.
In 1907, Alice married Herbert Blaché, who was also employed by Gaumont, and resigned. The company sent Herbert to America to set up a Gaumont Chronophone franchise in Cleveland, Ohio. Alice went with him. After the franchise failed, the couple headed to New York.
In 1910, Alice co-founded Solex Studios, the largest studio in America up to that time. Two years later, a new state-of-the-art facility was built at Fort Lee, New Jersey, then a hot spot for filmmaking.
Alice Guy-Blaché made her last film in 1919. By then, Hollywood was taking over as the reigning film capital. Two years later, her studio went bankrupt, and Alice was forced to auction off the studio and its contents. She left America for France in 1922, returning in 1964 to live out her remaining days with her daughter. Alice passed away four years later at the age of 94.
As is the case with many early films, of the over 1,000 Alice made, only 150 survive today.
Alice placed a large sign in her studio that read, "Be Natural." Which explains the title of a 2018 documentary, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché. I just watched the trailer, now I am smitten. I need to watch the whole thing.
The DVD is being released next month. I. can't.wait!
"There is nothing connected with the staging of a motion picture that a woman cannot do as easily as a man, and there is no reason why she cannot completely master every technicality of the art." -- Alice Guy-Blaché
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