THE WORLD扴 FIRST DIRECTOR, ALICE GUY-BLACHE

Beginnings

Alice Guy-Blache (also known as Alice Guy or Alice Blache) was truly the world抯 premier film director. She was born in Paris in 1873, the youngest of four daughters of a book publisher. At age 16, after her father抯 death, she worked as a stenographer-typist. It was in this capacity, as AliceGuy, the Gaumont Film Company employed her in 1896. Later that year the company switched from the manufacture of cameras to the production of motion pictures. This came about after Leon Gaumont (1864-1946) was invited to a demonstration of the Lumiere抯 Cinematographe. He brought along his secretary, Alice. Another account states that the Lumieres personally brought their invention to Gaumont and demonstrated it in his factory in Buttes-Chaumont. After viewing the several documentary film scenes, the boss, like the Lumieres, thought it all was fascinating but wasn抰 totally convinced it could have a commercial future. However, a short time after, Gaumont, an inventor in his own right, made his own version of Lumiere's 60mm camera. It was called the Gaumont Chrono-photographe. Although he and his staff regularly took pictures with the contraption, he still couldn't see a practical use for it. Alice, on the other hand, realized almost immediately that in order to sell the device, it would have to intrigue, mystify and entertain potential buyers. Alice herself said:

�...I thought I could do better...Gathering up my courage, I timidly proposed to Gaumont that I would write one or two short plays and make them for the amusement of my friends. If the developments which evolved from this proposal could have been foreseen, then I probably never would have obtained his agreement. My youth, my lack of experience, my sex all conspired against me.�

Gaumont, taken aback, responded with, "What! What! All right, if you want to." He is then credited to have said, "It's a child's toy anyhow."

LA FEE AUX CHOU

She was given permission to experiment with it, as long as it didn抰 interfere with her secretarial duties. She began to make short film programs, originally intended as demonstrations for clients. Her interest nurtured and eventually she produced her first narrative film, LA FEE AUX CHOU (THE GOOD FAIRY AND THE CABBAGE PATCH) � a reenactment of an old French fable about a fairy who makes children in a cabbage patch. Gaumont decided that her 慶omings and goings� were becoming too physically taxing on her and offered to fix up a small house he owned at the end of the Rue des Sonneries. Here, behind the photographic laboratory, she set up living quarters where she made her films. In her book, Autobiography of a Film Pioneer, she writes of the experience:

慖 was given an unused terrace with an asphalt floor (making it impossible to fix a real set). It was covered with a shaky glass roof and overlooked an empty lot. In this place, I made my debut as a director. A sheet painted by a neighborhood painter who specialized primarily in scarecrows and the like; a vague set � rows of cabbages constructed by a carpenter; costumes rented around the Porte St Martin. The cast: my friends, a crying baby, a worried mother.

My first film thus saw the light. Today (ca 1976) it is considered a classic. The Cinemateque Francaise has the negative.�

Locations included the garden of Leon Gaumont抯 house and the grounds around his factory. Again, even though LE FEE AUX CHOUX came about more for the purpose of promoting Gaumont抯 business rather than for pure entertainment - as was the case in Melies first narrative films - it was still a 慺irst.� The running time was a grand total of one minute.

Some sources claim that this film was made in the early part of 1896. This would put it around or even before George Melies� first narrative films, which is unlikely. Other sources put the date of its production closer to 1899 or 1900. In the Gaumont film catalogue of this time it is listed as production number 370, further evidence that it was made later than the earliest claim. No copyright date exists nor is it possible to accurately date a celluloid negative - if one of LE FEE AUX CHOUX were to survive. Filmmakers and distributors of the time felt that their product had no value, commercial or artistic, beyond their immediate use as entertainment. Another point against the 1901??? release date is the fact that Gaumont began to widely market his cinematic equipment in 1896, when a machine utilizing a format closer to the popular 35mm gauge was developed. Part of the controversy could also stem from the fact that it could have been theatrically paired with, as well as compared to, a thematically similar fairy tale produced by Melies a few years later. CENDRILLON (1899) was a grand spectacle in 20 scenes, offered in the 35mm gauge. If the two films were shown publicly they would both have to have been 35mm prints or the showmen would have had to be using two separate machines of two different gauges. Her next two films were: LES MISADVENTURES D扷N TETE DE VEAU

(1898), and LES DANGERS DE L扐LCOOLISME (1899). Comparatively, by 1899 Melies had produced about 60 films.

Production Continues

LA FEE AUX CHOUX was remade, of sorts, as THE FIRST CLASS MIDWIFE (1902). Another source states that LA FEE AUX CHOUX was reedited and reissued under a new title. Women played all of the parts with Alice herself playing the part of a man. In documentaries about her, it is usually a clip from this remake that is shown. The negative in the Cinemateque archive, which sources say was more recently discovered in a Swedish film archive, may very well be this remake (or reissue, whatever the case may be). Champions of women抯 history may desire to believe and relish in the tenuous fact that the very first story film - that is, planned, scripted, photographed, directed, edited and distributed � could very well have been accomplished by a woman. The record, as well as recollections, is hazy. However, one sure solid fact is that Alice Guy was truly the first woman in history to direct a story film. Alice began to regularly make short films. Her typical day in this early period followed a structured routine. She was at the office at 8AM to begin her secretarial duties. In the early afternoon, she left the office and made her way to a location across Paris. This was necessary because of the strong light at this time of day. When she finished shooting whatever she could of the current film in production, she hurried back to the Gaumont offices to finish her day抯 work. This

usually kept her busy until late in the evening. This went on for the better part of two years. By this time she underwent a job change and was functioning at Gaumont as a full time film director. Story films were becoming popular with entertainment-hungry audiences, in Europe and the USA. The infant industry was beginning to grow in leaps and bounds. No rules were established and the time was ripe for innovative techniques. At a time when the 慸irector� of a film was usually the camera operator, she turned the job over to others. This way she could focus totally on setting the tone and eliciting performances. Documentary footage exists of Alice at work on the set during the production of one of her films. Although it was obviously set up for promotional purposes, film footage exists clearly showing her giving direction to performers while someone else is at the camera. Even in these earliest days, production companies would on occasion shoot and tout such 慴ehind the scenes� sequences .

A Large Production Facility

1905 Gaumont built a larger, state of the art studio. This was the first time that a large structure was planned and constructed to house all aspects of motion picture production as well as equipment manufacturing. Alice was placed in charge of its operation卆nother world抯 first. Since no rules of filmmaking yet existed, she invented them, as Melies� was doing concurrently 慳cross town.� In a sense, she and Melies became one-person film schools. Being a woman,

her dominant subjects (naturally) were for the appeal of women audiences - a sharp contrast to the steady output of the fantastique of Melies. This proved to be a good move since at least half of the moviegoing audience presumably consisted of women patrons. The following year she made a film titled MADAM HAS HER CRAVINGS. The dramatic entity of the close-up was utilized in a tale of a woman obsessed with phallic objects. The acting in these close-ups was exaggerated, almost like a parody of the excesses of early silent films. This was strong fare for 1906, but she gets credit for effectively using close-ups at a time when they were rare. In her later films of the 1910s, when she was working in the United States, she insisted on the acting to be more 憀ike real life.� She even posted a sign, 態e Natural,� on the walls of her studio. Also in 1906 she turned out her first 憇pectacle� film, a 30 minute long production of THE LIFE OF CHRIST. During this period she supervised the productions of nearly 400 films. Unfortunately, and not unexpectedly, her triumphs and success caused some resentment among the other men employees.

A Marraige

Another 憁ilestone� of Alice抯 at this time is that she married another Gaumont employee, Herbert Blache-Bolton. Presumably, he was not one of the jealous fellow employees. Reportedly, she met him while filming bullfights in Nimes. An Englishman of French decent who eventually dropped the second half of his hyphenated last name, he was a former Gaumont chief cameraman now in charge of the company抯 branches in London and Berlin. Their union ultimately produced two children, Simone and Reginald. Unfortunately, this union proved to be less than fruitful for

Alice抯 career as a filmmaker. Herbert was transferred to the USA where Gaumont was establishing facilities for photographic and filmmaking operations. She was compelled to travel with her husband and relocate in Cleveland, Ohio were he set up a branch for Gaumont抯 products. At this time the New York area was becoming the center of film production in the USA, and was growing. American producers often brought women into production to 慴ring a sense of respectability.� None were ever utilized in the same capacity that Alice was at Gaumont in Paris, however. Women were essentially used as performers, script supervisors and as lesser functionaries.

A Move to New Jersey

Relocating to the Gaumont facility in Fort Lee, New Jersey Alice, as Alice Guy-Blache, again started making films. In 1910 Alice and her husband formed the Solax Film Co with Gaumont as a distributor. She produced out of a small studio in Flushing, NY. Employing American technicians for her productions, she found them unaware of the many cinematic innovations (some pioneered by herself) that she often used in Paris. The first production for Solax was the one reel A CHILD扴 SACRIFICE (starring Magda Foy, the 慡olax Kid�), directed by herself. By 1912 Alice and her husband built a new, state of the art production facility in Fort Lee. It housed five carpentry shops, prop rooms, hotel-like dressing rooms, an area set aside for men, five stage sets, laboratories, darkrooms, projection rooms, editing and screening rooms. The reported cost was the 憉nheard sum of $100,000.�

Innovations

As is the case with George Melies, many 慺irsts� have been credited to Alice. Since accuracy of the existing record is cloudy, it is difficult to say exactly what she was truly the first to accomplish. Many innovations, especially in the long and complicated history of the cinema, have happened virtually simultaneously. This can encompass all who were working with the new cinema devices in different parts of the world. Given carte blanche by Gaumont as to what the production subjects would be and how they would progress, Alice also enjoyed much freedom to experiment. As her knowledge of the technology developed, she explored the elements of color and sound. She was among the first to utilize color via a painstaking hand coloring process. One of her first movies to be shot in any color process was LA FEE PRINTEMPS (THE SPRING FAIRY)(1906). Gaumont, as well as others, were regularly working on developing coloring techniques involving hand applications of separate colors. These included an 慳ssembly line� stenciling process as well as chemical tinting of a color for entire sequences. Melies and Pathe did likewise.

Innovations Continue

For audio experimentation she worked with an extremely primitive process of a unique, if inadequate, method called the �Chronophone.� A performer would record his or her voice on a disc. This person was then photographed with a cine camera as the disc was played in the studio, out of the camera抯 range. The performer would then 憀ip synch� to what was being played back. For the performance, the concept was for the film to be projected as the recording was being played simultaneously. Her early sound films were ambitious undertakings, including scenes from such operas as                             FRA DIAVOLO, CARMEN and MINGON. Still other experimental programs utilized popular singers of the day singing popular songs. Major problems were proper synchronization and amplification. Others tried similar methods. Equipment of the era just could not do the job. The most successful of these early sound-with-film pioneers were the Edison technicians. Even with a rudimentary synchronization/ interlock system in use at the time the audio was never to be heard properly. Such was the state of the current technology. It wouldn抰 be for at least another decade that the technology of synchronous and audible sound-with-film reproduction would be successfully achieved. It took almost another decade for the Motion Picture industry to fully absorb the entity of 憇ound films� and adapt it as a standard.

Diverse Subjects

In the USA Alice made genre films, like Westerns and Action subjects. Women characters figured prominently in these dramas, more so than in any other films made with any regularity in this period. Many were produced in actual locations. Being a true pioneer, she continued to experiment with varying advancing techniques. In some dramas, the emphasis was on realism. In other dramas was utilized low lighting, decades before the term film noir was even thought of. Many of her films of this period even utilized cinematic tricks similar to those attributed to Melies. In PIERROT扴 CHRISTMAN, for instance, she used frame masking and double exposure. In A HOUSE DEMOLISHED AND REBUILT the film was first shot and printed forward and then the same film was printed in reverse. Blache's technical advisor, Frederic Dillaye, helped her refine the tricks. "In experience acquired day by day," says Blache, "by mistake, by chance, I discovered small tricks such as film turned inside out allows a house to collapse and be reconstructed again like magic. A person can tumble from a roof and go back up again instantly..." Other tricks involved setting cars on fire (a Darraq only three years old for a film titled MICKEY扴

PAL), detonating on-screen explosives, training rats to attack the lead actors (for a film titled THE SEWER), using animals and occasional nods toward the fantastique. A 1912 film of hers titled IN THE YEAR 2000 is about a future in which women rule the world. At this time there were 60,000 motion picture theaters in the world, 15,000 in the US alone.

Critical Response

The press of the time applauded the fact that she was �the world抯 first and only woman director.� Journalists and readers alike were fascinated with the fact that not only was she a talented cinema artist, but also an astute and enterprising businesswoman. October 1910 - June 1914, under the trademark of a blazing sun, the Solax Company produced some 325 films of assorted lengths and types. president. Blache's mission was to cater films specifically to American tastes with performances by American artists. Under her good management the history of Solax was, from its inception, an almost unbroken line of success. In the early part of her career, Blache was modest and shy of publicity. She just wanted to do her work in the best way she could. She ran Solax with the kind of total authority that would later be recognized as the theory of 憈he studio head as auteur.� Louis Reeves Harrison writing in Moving Picture World (June 1912) observed, 慚adame Blache is never ruffled, never agitated, never annoyed by the obtrusive effects of minor characters to thrust themselves into prominence. With a few simple directions, uttered without apparent emotion, she handles the interweaving movements like a military leader might the maneuvers of an army.� Another noted, 慣he happy atmosphere of the Solax studio, banked together, like the happy family which they are.� Her daughter, Simone Blache quoted in Women Who Make Movies, would later disagree, 慖n many respects she was a nineteenth-century person. She believed in the family structure. Yet, she had strong feminist views. She was enthused by everything she saw and heard that was feminist in any way.� Her company formed an integral part of the organized resistance to Edison and the powerful Motion Picture Patents Company. Major film productions, by equally major filmmakers, were active in the New Jersey area at this time. These included DW Griffith, Pearl White and fellow Frenchmen, the Pathe Freres. In November 1912 six Solax two-reel films were screened during a 慡olax Night� at the Town Hall in Brewster, New York. It was included as part of a campaign to demonstrate the growing respectability of the movies as a form of entertainment. It was an affair that attracted many community leaders and heads of society. Reportedly several 慶ame in automobiles� as well as 慳 millionaire and his family and other wealthy persons living in Brewster and its environs.� Soon it was announced that Herbert Blache厬had disassociated himself from his other commitments and joined forces with his wife� where 憈ogether they will guide the destiny of the Solax Company.� Production continued, but an unfortunate series of major setbacks were to befall her.

Later Production Difficulties

By 1913 the company was known as Blache Features, Inc, and was now producing only serious features. It was reorganized as the US Amusement Company and then as Popular Plays and Players with Gaumont still the distributor. Alice now functioned in the capacities of vice-president as well as one of a team of directors. Garnering some degree of note at this time, she continued making films concerning women抯 issues. THE CALL OF THE ROSE featured Grace Moore, a professional opera singer. In it she marries a young miner, who takes her West and sets her up in a little cottage. For a time, Grace is happy watching her devoted husband dig for gold. Soon, 憈he emptiness of her inactive existence� leads her to leave her husband and go east to resume her career...and yet, she still is not completely happy. Her husband comes east and they are reunited. Does Grace keep her career? The plot outline doesn't say. WINSOME BUT WISE features 慳n impecunious young lady full of energy and pluck� who goes west. She gets an idea that she can catch a notorious bandit who has eluded posse after posse. The cowboys laugh. The young lady sets out by herself, captures the bandit through trickery when she gets him to try on handcuffs. She then takes him in and gets the reward. In 1914, she was so disturbed and horrified after a visit to the prison, Sing Sing, she spoke out for prison reform. She was photographed sitting on the electric chair and quoted as saying, 揊rench prisons are much more comfortable, particularly the one at Fresnes.� Her film from the same year, THE LURE, was an attack of the white slavery racket. Although passed by the National Board of Censorship without a single change, The New York Times labeled her movie, 憁alodorous� and lumped it with other white slavery sexploitation films of the same era. Edison and the MPPC (commonly known as the �Edison Trust�, wielding their commercial and political powers, edged Gaumont out of the film distribution business. Adding a touch of irony, two active members of that 慐dison Trust� were fellow cinema pioneers (and Frenchmen), Georges Melies and Ferdinand Zecca. Who's Who in the Motion Picture World of 1915 credits her with starting the production of multiple reels (that is, more than two) in this country.

By 1917 she gave in to the pressures of independent production and managed to direct for larger studios, like Pathe and Metro. As fate would have it, around this time her husband deserted her, taking up with a younger actress. By 1919 it was becoming nearly impossible for any independent to compete with the onslaught of the growing monoliths of Hollywood - the studio 慚ajors.� Her last film productions were THE GREAT ADVENTURE with Bessie Love, TARNISHED REPUTATION and VAMPIRE. All were released in 1920 by the Pathe-Exchange. She began to hire out her talents to the larger companies, but it was clear that her career as an independent voice in the industry was all but finished. Herbert continued to direct for other producers but did not last into the sound era. Among the films he directed were THE HOPE (1920) with Ethel Barrymore and THE SAPHEAD (1920) with Buster Keaton.

Decline

In 1922 she divorced her husband. She returned to France with her two American born children. "Mother was really cherished in the United States," said her daughter, Simone, "The situation in France was quite the reverse." Without prints of her films, and by this time, a middle-aged woman, no one would employ her. In 1927 she returned to the States to search for and properly catalogue her films. But a visit to the Library of Congress, as well as several other film depositories, uncovered nothing at all. Why the discrepancy in proper credit for her contributions? Many of her films have been cited as works by others. No one realized this and tried to correct published errors more assiduously than Mme Blache herself. She anticipated that directing and producing credits for her films would be falsely assigned to her co-workers. She knew that her name, unintentionally or purposefully, would be omitted, or ignored or demoted in the histories of French and American film. All factors contributed to the haziness of the historical record of her work.

She began supporting herself by producing conferences at Universities on �feminine psychology and filmmaking.� She wholeheartedly believed in both marriage and a working life for women. At the age of 78, in 1951, at the Cinematheque Francais Blache was finally honored as the first woman filmmaker in the world. Two years later, she was made a knight of the French Legion of Honor. In 1964 she returned to the US, Mahwah, New Jersey, where her daughter had moved. Four years later at the age of 95 she died.

Posthumous Recognition

Homage was paid to her in the film THE LOST GARDEN, THE LIFE AND CINEMA OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE (1995). Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, it featured a narration by her granddaughter. The Women in Cinema Film Festival, January 24-30, 1997 was dedicated to her. Film societies have run retrospectives on her work and she was included in a special documentary on early women filmmakers presented on the American Movie Classics cable network. Although not the true premier Cinema auteur, Alice Guy-Blache will be remembered as a pioneer.