We hear of a lot of firsts for men, the first man on the moon, the first man to ever climb Everest and the first man to go around the world but rarely do we discuss the wins of women. Even if takes women much more to achieve the same things, their names are still lost as time goes and they are forgotten. One such woman was Alice Guy-Blaché who was not only the first female director but probably the one to have given the job its meaning. This film pioneer left behind an illustrious career spanning over more than twenty years in which she made over a thousand movies while running her film studio. She is till the date mentioned as an inspiration by many directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Barabara Streisand who all say that she invented the director’s job.
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Bare beginnings
The magical journey of her career began when Alice was just 21 years old and worked as an assistant to Leon Gaumont, a French photographer in the year 1984. She attended the first screening of a film by the Lumiere Brothers which was shot on the 60mm cinematograph. She did not know it then but the impact that simple film had on her would alter the course of her life in ways she had not imagined.
Taken by the technology, she asked to borrow the camera from the Lumiere brothers and decided to work with it on her own for a while. She applied to it all that she knew about photography while she was still learning to use the device. In the year 1896, she wrote, produce and directed her own film known as “The Cabbage Fairy” which was made entirely in Gaumont’s studio using her skills and pre-existing knowledge in photography. The movie was a comedy based around a woman who grows all her children in a cabbage patch. At this point in time, the technology of cameras used for films and photographs was new and this was the first time that someone had used them to create a fictitious narrative. In her effort to create something new, she gave birth to film direction and camera language as we know it today.
She was soon made the Head of Production at his company by Gaumont. Alice made many short films and feature-length movies in the next twenty years. All of them were deemed as pathbreaking in one way or the other. She helped come up with a system of making movies way before Hollywood had taken birth the way it is today. One of her movies was named “In the year 2000 When Women are in charge” which was not just a progressive title but also the whole movie itself is discussed to be way ahead of its time. She also directed a movie in the year 1912 with an all-African-American cast which was a very uncommon thing at the time.
Towards a stellar filmmaking career
On one of her shoots, she met her husband Herbert Blaché who was also a photographer. She was only married to him for a short period while which she moved to the USA from France. Her husband and Alice both used to live in New Jersey where she opened her film studio, The Solax Company. The studio aided her to make one film every week for a long time but it was not to be forever. After a few years, Herbert and Alice had a divorce and she lost all her money in the process. She even had to sell her beloved studio and never made another film in her life.
Alice always had a passion for cinema and even went on to call it her prince charming. She had such a love for the art that reflected in all her work and was perceived by her audience. Not only was she passionate and hardworking but also a fine example of what a woman can do if given a square chance in life, as described by The Moving Pictures News in the year 1911. Alice was also aware of her achievements and proud to have led the life she did.
For many years, this pioneer of film-making was forgotten and buried in the sands of time, only to be unearthed as the trailblazer she actually was. The academicians of the new wave of feminism have found out, amongst many other gems, Alice Guy-Blache again in order to show to the world what we were missing on.
In her memoir, she recounts multiple incidents that prepared for the world of storytelling and cinema. She mentions many incidents which made her experience what her life had to offer such as suffering, fortitude and the greatest of adventures. This all came through in her work and made people connect to it even more. In her first job with a company as a secretary, she even remembers standing up to her sexual harasser, in her true spirit. Although a major publication had written about her as somebody who has been given a fair chance, she actually faced a lot of problems entering the industry and in her life.
Forever away from fame
Even after all this, many people who call themselves cinephiles would not know Alice Guy-Blaché if they were asked. The reason for that has more to do with her gender than we would like. She was a woman making movies in a field that was and still is dominated by men. The film history from the very beginning was written by men with no space for any alternative narratives and different perspectives. Even as we write of her today, we simply cannot ignore the fact that many of her male counterparts were idolised while her work was through the years neglected, buried and even credited to other men.
The documentary “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché” talks about all of this and much more that went on in her life. This is the documentary that brought her and her achievements to life for many people who loved cinema, cinema history but had never heard her name. With an in-depth search into all archives, the documentary reconstitutes her life and legacy as it was.
Alice Guy-Blache is a life that one should get to know about as effective evidence of how it’s not always that women fall off the radar of history just because they were not good enough. For an entire decade, she was the only female director in the world who was producing top-notch work and changing the ways of the industry every single time, only to be forgotten later on. It is indeed true as it was said by Jane Gaines (Founder of what would be the Women film Pioneers Project): “how wrong we often are: women couldn’t do it; women wouldn’t do it.”
