Nationality: French. Born: Born in
Saint-Mandé, 1 July 1873. Also known as Alice Guy-Blaché and Alice
Blaché. Education: Convent du Sacré-Coeur, Viry, France 1879–85;
religious school at Ferney, and brief term in Paris; studied
stenography. Family: Married Herbert Blaché-Bolton, 1907 (divorced
1922), two children. Career: La Gaumont, 1895; directed first film, La
Fée aux choux, 1896 ; director of Gaumont film production, 1897–1907;
using Gaumont "chronophone," made first sound films, 1900; moved to
United States with husband, who was to supervise Gaumont subsidiary
Solax, 1907; ceased independent production, lectured on filmmaking at
Columbia University, 1917; assistant director to husband, 1919–20;
returned to France, 1922; moved to United States, 1964. Awards: Legion
of Honor, 1955. Died: In Mahwah, New Jersey, 24 March 1968.
Films as Director and Scriptwriter:
1896
La Fée aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy)
1897
Le Pêcheur dans le torrent; Leçon de danse; Baignade dans le torrent;
Une nuit agitée; Coucher d'Yvette; Danse fleur de lotus; Ballet
Libella; Le Planton du colonel; Idylle; L'Aveugle
1897/98
L'Arroseur arrosé; Au réfectoire; En classe; Les Cambrioleurs; Le
Cocher de fiacre endormi; Idylleinterrompue; Chez le magnétiseur; Les
Farces de Jocko; Scène d'escamotage; Déménagement à la cloche de bois;
Je vous y prrrends!
1898/99
Leçons de boxe; La Vie du Christ (11 tableaux)
1899/1900
Le Tondeur de chiens; Le Déjeuner des enfants; Au cabaret; La Mauvaise
Soupe; Un Lunch; Erreur judiciaire; L'Aveugle; La Bonne Absinthe; Danse
serpentine par Mme Bob Walter; Mésaventure d'un charbonnier; Monnaie de
lapin; Les Dangers de l'acoolisme; Le Tonnelier; Transformations; Le
Chiffonier; Retour des champs; Chez le Maréchal-Ferrant; Marché à la
volaille; Courte échelle; L'Angélus; Bataille d'oreillers; Bataille de
boules de neige; Le marchand de coco
1900
Avenue de l'Opéra; La petite magicienne; Leçon de danse; Chez le photographe; Sidney's Joujoux series (nine titles); Dans les coulisses; Au Bal de
Flore series (three titles); Ballet Japonais series (three titles);
Danse serpentine; Danse du pas des foulards par des almées; Danse de
l'ivresse; Coucher d'une Parisienne; Les Fredaines de Pierrette series
(four titles); Vénus et Adonis series (five titles); La Tarantelle;
Danse des Saisons series (four titles); La Source; Danse du papillon;
La Concierge; Danses series (three titles); Chirurgie fin de siècle;
Une Rage de dents; Saut humidifié de M. Plick
1900/01
La Danse du ventre; Lavatory moderne; Lecture quotidienne
1900/07
(Gaumont "Phonoscènes", i.e. films with synchronized sound recorded on
a wax cylinder): Carmen (twelve scenes); Mireille (five scenes); Les
Dragons de Villars (nine scenes); Mignon (seven scenes); FaustPolin
series (thirteen titles); Mayol series (thirteen titles); Dranem series
of comic songs (twelve titles); Series recorded in Spain (eleven
titles); La Prière by Gounod (twenty-two scenes);
1901
Folies Masquées series (three titles); Frivolité; Les Vagues; Danse
basque; Hussards et grisettes; Charmant FrouFrou; Tel est pris qui
croyait prendre
1902
La fiole enchantée; L'Equilibriste;
En faction; La Première Gamelle; La Dent récalcitrante; Le Marchand de
ballons; Les Chiens savants; Miss Lina Esbrard Danseuse Cosmopolite et
Serpentine series (four titles); Les Clowns; Sage-femme de première
classe; Quadrille réaliste; Une Scène en cabinet particulier vue à
travers le trou de la serrure; Farces de cuisinière; Danse mauresque;
Le Lion savant; Le Pommier; La Cour des miracles; La Gavotte; Trompé
mais content; Fruits de saison; Pour secourer la salade
1903
Potage indigeste; Illusioniste renversant; Le Fiancé ensorcelé; Les
Apaches pas veinards; Les Aventures d'un voyageur trop pressé; Ne
bougeons plus; Comment monsieur prend son bain; La Main du professeur
Hamilton ou Le Roi des dollars; Service précipité, La Poule
fantaisiste; Modelage express; Faust et Méphistophélès; Lutteurs
américains; La Valise enchantée; Compagnons de voyage encombrants;
Cake-Walk de la pendule; Répétition dans un cirque; Jocko musicien; Les
Braconniers; La Liqueur du couvent; Le Voleur sacrilège; Enlèvement en
automobile et mariage précipite
1903/04
Secours aux
naufragés; La Mouche; La Chasse au cambrioleur; Nos Bon Etudiants; Les
Surprises del'affichage; Comme on fait son lit on se couche; Le Pompon
malencontreux 1; Comment on disperse les foules; Les Enfants du
miracle; Pierrot assassin; Les Deux Rivaux
1904
L'Assassinat du Courrier de Lyon; Vieilles Estampes series (four
titles); Mauvais coeur puni; Magie noire; Rafle de chiens; Cambrioleur
et agent; Scènes Directoire series (three titles); Duel tragique;
L'Attaque d'un diligence; Culture intensive ou Le Vieux Mari; Cible
humaine; Transformations; Le Jour du terme; Robert Macaire et Bertrand;
Electrocutée; La Rêve du chasseur; Le Monolutteur; Les Petits Coupeurs
de bois vert; Clown en sac; Triste Fin d'un vieux savant; Le Testament
de Pierrot; Les Secrets de la prestidigitation dévoilés; La Faim . . .
L' occasion . . . L'herbe tendre; Militaire et nourrice; La Première
Cigarette; Départ pour les vacances; Tentative d'assassinat en chemin
de fer; Paris la nuit ou Exploits d' apaches àMontamartre; Concours de
bébés; Erreur de poivrot; Volée par les bohémiens (Rapt d' enfant par
les romanichels); Les Bienfaits du cinématographe; P tissier et
ramoneur; Gage d'amour; L'Assassinat de la rue du Temple (Le Crime de
la rue du Temple); Le Réveil du jardinier; Les Cambrioleurs de Paris
1905
Réhabilitation; Douaniers et contrebandiers (La Guérité); Le Bébé
embarrassant; Comment on dort á Paris!; Le Lorgnon accusateur; La
Charité du prestidigitateur; Une Noce au lac Saint-Fargea u;
Le Képi; Le Pantalon coupé; Le Plateau; Roméo pris au piége; Chien
jouant á la balle; La Fantassin Guignard; La Statue; Villa dévalisée;
Mort de Robert Macaire et Bertrand; Le Pavé; Les Maçons; La Esmeralda;
Peintre et ivrogne; On est poivrot, mais on a du cœur; Au Poulailler!
1906
La Fée au printemps; La Vie du marin; La Chaussette; La Messe de
minuit; Pauvre pompier; Le Régiment moderne; Les Druides; Voyage en
Espagne series (fifteen titles); La Vie de Christ (25 tableaux);
Conscience de prêtre; L'Honneur du Corse; J'ai un hanneton dans mon
pantalon; Le Fils du garde-chasse; Course de taureaux à Nîmes; La Pègre
de Paris; Lèvres closes (Sealed Lips); La Crinoline; La Voiture
cellulaire; La Marâtre; Le Matelas alcoolique; A la recherche d'un
appartement
1907
La vérité sur l'homme-singe (Ballet de
Singe); Déménagement à la cloche de bois; Les Gendarmes; Sur la
barricade (L'enfant de la barricade)
1910
A Child's Sacrifice (The Doll)
1911
Rose of the Circus; Across the Mexican Line; Eclipse; A Daughter of the
Navajos; The Silent Signal; The Girl and the Bronco Buster; The Mascot
of Troop "C"; An Enlisted Man's Honor; The Stampede; The Hold-Up; The
Altered Message; His Sister's Sweetheart; His Better Self; A
Revolutionary Romance; The Violin Maker of Nuremberg
1912
Mignon or The Child of Fate; A Terrible Lesson; His Lordship's White
Feather; Falling Leaves; The Sewer; In the Year 2000; A Terrible Night;
Mickey's Pal; Fra Diavolo; Hotel Honeymoon; The Equine Spy; Two Little
Rangers; The Bloodstain; At the Phone; Flesh and Blood; The Paralytic;
The Face at the Window
1913
The Beasts of the Jungle; Dick
Whittington and His Cat; Kelly from the Emerald Isle; The Pit and the
Pendulum; Western Love; Rogues of Paris; Blood and Water; Ben Bolt; The
Shadows of the Moulin Rouge; The Eyes that Could Not Close; The Star of
India; The Fortune Hunters
1914
Beneath the Czar; The
Monster and the Girl; The Million Dollar Robbery; The Prisoner of the
Harem; The Dream Woman; Hook and Hand; The Woman of Mystery; The Yellow
Traffic; The Lure; Michael Strogoff; or The Courier to the Czar; The
Tigress; The Cricket on the Hearth
1915
The Heart of a Painted Woman; Greater Love Hath No Man; The Vampire; My Madonna; Barbara Frietchie (co-d)
1916
What Will People Say?; The Girl with the Green Eyes; The Ocean Waif; House of Cards;
1917
The Empress; The Adventurer; A Man and the Woman; When You and I Were Young; Behind the Mask
1918
The Great Adventure
1920
Tarnished Reputation
Other Films:
1919
The Divorcee (asst d); The Brat (asst d)
1920
Stronger than Death (asst d)
Publications
By GUY: book—
Autobiographie
d'une pionnière du cinéma 1873–1968, Paris, 1976; published as The
Memoirs of Alice Guy-Blaché, edited by Anthony Slide, Metuchen, New
Jersey, 1986.
By GUY: articles—
"Woman's Place in Photoplay Production," in The Moving Picture World (New York), 11 July 1914.
Letter in Films in Review (New York), May 1964.
"La Naissance du cinéma," in Image et Son (Paris), April 1974.
"Tournez, mesdames . . . ," in Ecran (Paris), August/September 1974.
On GUY: books—
Slide, Anthony, Early Women Directors, New York, 1977.
Elsaesser, Thomas, and Adam Barker, editors, Early Cinema: Space-Frame-Narrative, London, 1990.
Bachy, Victor, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1873–1968: La première femme cinéaste du monde, Perpignan, France, 1993.
On GUY: articles—
Levine, H.Z., "Madame Alice Blaché," in Photoplay (New York), March 1912.
Ford, Charles, "The First Female Producer," in Films in Review (New York), March 1964.
Smith, F.L., "Alice Guy-Blaché," in Films in Review (New York), April 1964.
Lacassin, Francis, "Out of Oblivion: Alice Guy-Blaché," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1971.
Mitry, Jean, "A propos d'Alice Guy," in Ecran (Paris), July 1976.
Deslandes, J., "Sur Alice Guy: polémique," in Ecran (Paris), September 1976.
Peary, Gerald, "Czarina of the Silent Screen," in Velvet Light Trap (Madison, Wisconsin), Winter 1977.
Dixon, W.W., "Alice Guy: Forgotten Pioneer of the Narrative Cinema," in New Orleans Review, vol. 19, no. 3–4, 1992.
" Cinema premier Alice Guy"dvd SOLAX gaumont AUTIST ARTIST ASSOCIAT PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION
Alice Guy not only directed the first narrative motion picture, but was
the first to use close ups, (something usually attributed to D.W.
Griffin), she was the first to film a motion picture in color. First is
a word that remains synonymous with Alice Guy. She did the first film
noir, the first gay themed film, she was the first to step out from
behind the camera to direct actors, at the time all directors handled
the camera themselves, and she made extensive use of wax cylinders to
give many of her short films a sound track, in other words they were
talkies before anyone had coined that term.
Moving to
America,Alice Guy ran the largest pre-Hollywood studio in the country.
Over her lifetime Guy wrote and directed over six hundred films and yet
this Grand Lady of cinema has been all but ignored. It is time that
this wrong is righted and Alice Guy given her due as the pioneer among
pioneers in film.