Alice Guy-Blaché
Directing
Born July 1, 1873 in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France
Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) is generally considered to be the world's first female director. French-born Alice Guy entered the film business as a secretary at Gaumont-Paris in 1896. The next year Gaumont changed from manufacturing cameras to producing movies, and Guy became one of its first film directors. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising the company's other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran the company's British and German offices. The pair soon went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 she set up her own production company in New York and built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, her company's fortunes declined and she eventually shut down the studio. Although she secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, she returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blache. She was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, and never made a film again. In 1964 she returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughters, where she died in 1968.
Filmography
Alice Guy - 13 Courts-métrages
Fantastic Flowers
Imitation of Waves - Guy's Visions
Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker
Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Self (archive footage)
The Women Who Run Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913
The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché
Self (archive footage)
Cinépanorama
Self
Tarnished Reputations
The Great Adventure
Behind the Mask
When You and I Were Young
House of Cards
The Empress
The Adventurer
The Ocean Waif
The Scarlet Woman
What Will People Say?
Barbara Frietchie
My Madonna
The Song of the Wage Slave
The Vampire
Heart of a Painted Woman
The Tigress
The Lure
The Woman of Mystery
The Dream Woman
The Pit and the Pendulum
Matrimony's Speed Limit
A House Divided
A Severe Test
Dick Whittington and His Cat
Burstup Homes' Murder Case
Officer Henderson
The Thief
The Coming of Sunbeam
The Roads That Lead Home
Beasts of the Jungle
Cousins of Sherlocko
The Girl in the Arm-Chair
The Hater of Women
A Comedy of Errors
Making an American Citizen
The High Cost of Living
Canned Harmony
The Fight in the Dark
Dublin Dan
Playing Trumps
His Double
The Strike
Two Little Rangers
Broken Oaths
For Love of the Flag
Fra Diavolo
In the Year 2000
Souls in the Shadow
The Sewer
Falling Leaves
Algie, the Miner
The Detective's Dog
A Terrible Lesson
Frozen on Love's Trail
A Man's a Man
Parson Sue
A Fool and His Money
His Mother's Hymn
Outwitted by Horse and Lariat
Starting Something
Greater Love Hath No Man
Cupid and the Comet
Across the Mexican Line
Tramp Strategy
Mixed Pets
When Marian was Married
What Is a Flag?
The Irresistible Piano
The Glue
The Rolling Bed
The Cleaning Man
The Banknote
The Race for the Sausage
Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris
Herself, the director
The Consequences of Feminism
Man Monkey
The Dirigible 'Homeland'
Dranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea"
The Drunken Mattress
A Story Well Spun
The Stepmother
The Hierarchies of Love
A Sticky Woman
The Mouse in the Crinoline
Madame's Cravings
The Game-Keeper's Son
The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ
An Obstacle Course
A Priest's Conscience
Ocean Studies
Esmeralda
The Magician's Alms
Tango
The Statue
Spain
Self - Presenter
The Bricklayers
Clown, Dog and Balloon
Félix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka"
Le Cake-walk de nouveau cirque
Félix Mayol Performs "White Lilacs"
Dranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu
Félix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions"
Saharet Performs the Bolero
Polin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee"
The Malagueña and the Bullfighter
In a Bamboo Hut
The Fairy's Farewell
Token of Love
Faust and Mephistopheles
How Monsieur Takes His Bath
An Untimely Intrusion
Midwife to the Upper Class
Eccentric Dance
Serpentine Dance
Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs
Danse basque
Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance
At the Photographer's
At the Floral Ball
The Landlady
Avenue de l'Opéra
Pierrette's Escapades
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
Turn-of-the-Century Surgery
Automated Hat-Maker and Sausage-Grinder
At the Club
Wonderful Absinthe
Surprise Attack on a House at Daybreak
Disappearing Act
At the Hypnotist's
The Burglars
The Turn-of-the-Century Blind Man
Danse Fleur de Lotus
Ballet Libella
The Fisherman at the Stream
Bathing in a Stream
Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
Animated Portrait Shot by L and A Lumière
Herself