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      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
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      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
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      • The Third Man
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      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
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Alice Guy-Blache

Founders Series Part 2:  Alice Guy-Blache

When I was in Film History class, as both an undergrad & a graduate student, I learned that the motion picture was invented not in the US by Thomas Edison, but in France by brothers August & Louis Lumiere in 1895.  Furthermore, I was taught that Georges Milies, another Frenchman, had pioneered early  narrative film with his short, A Trip to the Moon in 1902.  Fast forward to the next decade & the studios began to emerge in New York & would move to California not long after. Lost in this rather rote overview of film history, however, is one of the most influential & important filmmakers that not one of my film history classes, textbooks or professors even bothered to mention, the first female movie director Alice Guy-Blache.
Guy-Blache was a 22 year old secretary, working for French film equipment manufacturer Gaumont when she witnessed the initial showing of the Lumiere brothers' motion picture.  A little more than a year later she approached her boss, asking if she could make films to help show the promise & potential in the company's film cameras.  The year was 1896 & Leon Gaumont agreed to allow her to make films, provided she do so on her own time.  Guy-Blache believed that film could be used for something better than the recording of daily life, as most of the Lumiere's films had captured.

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​She thought the medium was best suited to tell stories & set about to write, edit, produce, stage & direct The Cabbage Fairy (1896), a retelling of the fairy tale about where babies come from.  Over the next 10 years she would go on to become the head of production & creator of the house style for Gaumont, directing hundreds of films, inventing such staples of filmmaking as the close-up, while also pioneering the use of synchronous sound, tinted color, editing & narrative flow.  She directed westerns, melodramas, musicals, & epics, but was best known for her comedies.  Her film The Consequences of Feminism (1906) even reverses traditional sexual roles for comedic & social impact.
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She left Gaumont & France to come to America with her husband Herbert Blache, who was to head the US unit of a French film company in Cleveland.  In 1910, she formed her own production company, Solax, & began making films again.  As in France she wrote, produced, & directed hundreds of films during Solax's 4 year existence.  At one point, the Solax facilities were deemed the most advanced on the East coast.  Before moving to Hollywood all the major studios that we would know today, Fox, Paramount, Universal & MGM, among many others, all had facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey, yet Solax had the best.  
​Guy-Blache was a traditionalist & in following her husband to the US, she was fulfilling her wifely duties, but when she returned to filmmaking it wasn't at the expense of a family.  While she was running Solax & creating all aspects of its output, she still had time to have 2 children.  At one point, when questioned about marriage, she admitted that if she ever did get married it would only be to allow her to have children.
When Solax folded in in the late teens, through a series of bad luck, a fire & primary film productions' move to Hollywood, Guy-Blache found sporadic film work through the rest of the teens, but moved back to France in 1920, without her husband.  Essentially, her career as a filmmaker was over.  She was 47 years old.  In her 25 year career she had created or overseen more than 1,000 films & had outlasted Edison, the Lumieres & Meslies, yet she couldn't get work in France.
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For the remaining 48 years of her life she wrote magazine articles, lived with one of her daughters & was determined that her name not be forgotten.  She eventually wrote one of the best autobiographies in film history, but when she died it hadn't yet been published.  Likewise, when she died in 1968 only 3 of her films were believed to still exist.  By the time the autobiography was published, 8 years later, an additional 30 films had been found in archives throughout the world.  It would take another 20 years, however, for film archivists to find an additional 130 of the more than 1,000 films credited to her as a writer, director, producer or production head.
Sadly, however, many of the traditional film histories & textbooks still neglect to even mention Guy-Blache, let alone devote significant attention to her legacy.  While she was a woman of her era, she was also an extraordinary artist & innovator many decades ahead of her time.  It is often said that history is written by the victors & film history is no different.  Thankfully, her papers now reside at the Museum of Modern Art, several of her films are housed in the Library of Congress & film retrospectives have been held around the world.  But her name is still known to very few outside of scholars on early film.
It so happens that I came across a documentary produced in 2018 called Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache that opened my eyes to this wondrous pioneer.  The title is taken from perhaps her greatest contribution to film, the constant reminder to her actors to "be natural" when on camera.  The film is narrated by Jodie Foster & tracks not just her film career, but her amazing life & includes interviews with Guy-Blache from the '50's & '60's.  For fans of film or women's history, Be Natural is a no-brainer, must see.  For anyone curious about how history is often incomplete, biased or misleading, I recommend this incredibly well told story. A selection of Guy-Blache's films are now available on blu-ray & also worth seeking out.

Be Natural:  The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache is available on TCM Watch and can be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play or YouTube.
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  • Home
  • Top 10 Lists
    • My Top 10 Favorite Movies
    • Top 10 Heist Movies
    • Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
    • The Top 10 Films of the Troubles (1969-1998) >
      • The Troubles Selected Timeline
    • Top 10 Films from 2001
    • Director Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Film Noir Directors
      • Top 10 Coen Brothers Films
      • Top 10 John Ford Films
      • Top 10 Samuel Fuller Films
      • Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films
      • Top 10 John Huston Films
      • Top 10 Fritz Lang Films (American)
      • Val Lewton Top 10
      • Top 10 Ernst Lubitsch Films
      • Top 10 Jean-Pierre Melville Films
      • Top 10 Nicholas Ray Films
      • Top 10 Preston Sturges Films
      • Top 10 Robert Siodmak Films
      • Top 10 William Wellman Films
      • Top 10 Billy Wilder Films
    • Actor/Actress Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Joan Blondell Movies
      • Top 10 Clark Gable Movies
      • Top 10 Ava Gardner Films
      • Top 10 Gloria Grahame Films
      • Top 10 Jean Harlow Movies
      • Top 10 Miriam Hopkins Films
      • Top 10 Grace Kelly Films
      • Top 10 Burt Lancaster Films
      • Top 10 Carole Lombard Movies
      • Top 10 Myrna Loy Films
      • Top 10 Marilyn Monroe Films
      • Top 10 Robert Mitchum Noir Movies
      • Top 10 Paul Newman Films
      • Top 10 Robert Ryan Movies
      • Top 10 Norma Shearer Movies
      • Top 10 Barbara Stanwyck Films
    • Top 10 Noir Films (Classic Era)
    • Top 10 Pre-Code Films
    • Top 10 Actresses of the 1930's
  • Reviews
    • Quick Hits: Short Takes on Recent Viewing >
      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
      • Le Silence De La Mer ('49)
      • The Princess Bride ('87) Intro
      • Pulp Fiction ('94) Intro
    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
      • Wild Orchids ('29)
    • The 1930's >
      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
    • The 1990's >
      • The General (1998)
    • 2000's >
      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
  • Artists
    • Actors/Actresses >
      • Joan Blondell
      • Faye Dunaway: 1967-1976
      • The Noir Villainy of Dan Duryea
      • Clark Gable Bio
      • Jean Harlow Bio
      • Veronica Lake
      • Norma Shearer
    • Directors/Producers/Cinematographers >
      • Founders Series: Alice Guy-Blache
      • John Alton
      • Joan Harrison-Producer/Writer
      • Hitchcock & Cary Grant
      • William Wellman
    • Books >
      • Book Reviews >
        • Book Review: Clark Gable by D. Bret
      • Pre-Code
      • Actor Bios
      • Film Noir
      • Director Bios
      • Studio Head Bios
      • Hollywood History
    • Studio
  • Resources
    • Sight & Sound Top 100 2022
    • NOTES >
      • American Graffiti Notes
      • Anatomy of a Murder Notes
      • The Asphalt Jungle Outline
      • Breakfast Club Notes
      • Citizen Kane Notes
      • It's A Wonderful Life Notes
      • Rebel Without a Cause Notes
      • Singin' in the Rain Notes
    • CMBA Interview/Profile
    • Bay Cinema Society Press
    • Hollywood History >
      • Production Code
      • Film Noir
  • Video Introductions
    • Video Introductions
  • Last Picture Show Notes
  • Paul Verhoeven