The Forgotten Legacy of the First Woman Filmmaker
This piece was originally written for the wonderful Screen Education before it sadly went on indefinite hiatus.
Alice Guy-Blaché, the first woman filmmaker, was forgotten by the industry she helped to establish. The documentary film, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (Pamela B. Green, 2018) is an investigative narrative, searching to uncover Guy-Blaché’s forgotten legacy and the journey toward her reclamation. With the growing awareness of gender inequality in the film industry, Be Natural serves as a timely reminder that women have long struggled to be recognised as creative powerhouses. As the long-kept silent stories of women continue to re-emerge, its time they made their way into our classrooms as there is much to be celebrated and learnt from unprecedented creatives such as Alice Guy-Blaché.
Alice Guy-Blaché and the beginning of cinema
Alice Guy-Blaché holds the title of many firsts — first woman filmmaker, first narrative film director and first woman studio owner, to name just a few. She was an early pioneer of cinema and as such an appropriate way to incorporate her legacy into our teaching is to do so alongside the work of other early pioneers already explored in classroom, including the Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès, the Pathé Brothers, Thomas Edison and Edwin S. Porter among others.
Be Natural shares Guy-Blaché’s filmmaking story which begins at the conception of cinema. The birth of moving pictures is credited to 28 December 1895 when the Lumière Brothers presented the first public demonstration of the cinematograph. However, nine months prior on 22 March, the Lumière Brothers revealed the invention to a group of close friends and colleagues. Among those invited was the founder of the Gaumont Studios, Léon Gaumont and his 22-year-old secretary, Alice Guy.
Guy-Blaché was inspired by the screening and believed motion pictures had the power to awaken fictional narratives, rather than simply document everyday life. Within a year, Guy-Blaché became the motion picture industry’s first woman filmmaker writing, directing and filming the first fictional film, The Cabbage Fairy (1896 remade 1900). The film combines fairy tale and folklore telling the story of the cabbage fairy who brings newborns into the world. The Cabbage Fairy was made seven years prior to The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S Porter, 1903), wrongly accredited as the first narrative film. Guy-Blaché was one of the first filmmakers to transition from the Cinema of Attractions to narrative cinema exploring extensive subject areas in her films ranging from comedies, westerns, dramas, musicals and literary adaptations as well as exploring progressive themes and values including questioning gender roles. She was also amongst the first filmmakers to utilise many film techniques including dramatic close ups, hand tinted colour and synchronized sound to create film musicals.
In 1897, Guy-Blaché was appointed the Head of Production of Gaumont Studios. She developed the Gaumont house style and her films were distributed domestically and internationally. At Gaumont, Guy-Blaché made hundreds of films. Her most impressive being The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906); a 30 minute extravaganza, with 25 sets and over 300 extras.[i] At the time, this film was the biggest blockbuster in France, gaining Guy-Blaché recognition for her work.
After leaving Gaumont Studios and following her husband to the United States, Guy-Blaché founded Solax Studios in 1910, in Flushing, New York. In The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché Guy-Blaché is quoted stating, ‘Waste has always been a terrifying word to me…. I had had experience in the picture business — I knew it thoroughly and it seemed a shame not to put my knowledge to some good advantage when there was so much room.’[ii] Solax allowed Guy-Blaché to direct and manage all aspects of production. She built a state of the art film studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey in 1912 and her films were distributed across the globe. Her success at Solax was apparent as, to keep up with audience demand, she went from creating one production a week to three. All Hollywood studios are said to have their roots in Fort Lee and Guy-Blaché was right there in the beginning with Paramount, Fox, Universal and many more.
By 1917 Solax Studios was rented out to other companies, illness drove decisions for the family and Guy-Blaché’s career in film slowly faded as it became more difficult for women to work in the industry. Guy-Blaché’s career outpaced Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès, spanning over two decades, across two countries and comprised of over one thousand films that she wrote, directed and produced.[iii] As McMahan in Alice Guy Blache: Lost Visionary of the Cinema states, ‘The length of Guy’s career is a testament to her ability to adapt in order to meet the changing demands of the industry. It is also a testament to her ability to fulfil various roles.’[iv]
In Be Natural, Green asks, ‘How could such an important figure in the birth of cinema not be known?’ The answer is that she was forgotten, left out of written history and not given credit for her achievements by ‘…misogynistic male historians…’[v] and her films were lost across the globe or succumbed to the fragility of nitrate film.
Later in her life, Guy-Blaché sought to reclaim her legacy, correcting the Gaumont film history (which never made it to publication), writing to film historians and journalists with amendments when her films were incorrectly credited to men and searched for her films with minimal support. As Meier in Alice Guy-Blaché, the First Woman Filmmaker states, ‘Even receiving France’s Légion d’Honneur award in 1953 did not revive her reputation.’[vi] Alice Guy-Blaché’s story is one of exceptional talent, she was a dominant figure at the beginning of cinema, she commanded the studio, set agendas and broke boundaries. Her story is influential and relevant not only for her contribution to cinema but also for drawing attention to the many other women in the film industry (and across other sectors) whose contribution have not been duly acknowledged. As Meier observes, ‘Over a century later, there is still a major lack of support for women in the directing, writing, and producing of cinema.’[vii]
Setting agendas, breaking boundaries
From 1896 to 1906 Guy-Blaché was the only woman film director in the world.[viii] Guy-Blaché writes for The Motion Picture World, ‘There is nothing connected with the staging of a motion picture that a woman cannot do as easily as a man, and there is no reason why she cannot completely master every technicality of the art.’ Not only was Guy-Blaché able to master the technicalities of filmmaking, the content she explored in her films pushed social norms and are still relevant to today, making these films thought-provoking stimuli in the classroom. Guy-Blaché’s films explored complex topics and characters that many male filmmakers were not. She explored gender roles, wrote leading roles for women and children and delved into inequality in relationships, often through melodramatic or comedic genres. As McMahan says Guy-Blaché’s narrative choices ‘…could be described as a desire to emphasize that women also worked and played in the world alongside men. Beyond that, she began to articulate a female address, a layer of messages aimed at women…’[ix]
Guy-Blaché was aware of the gender inequality in her society and explored this in her films. She asked the audience to question their assumptions about gender in Greater Love Hath No Man (1911), Cupid and the Comet (1911), The Hater of Women (1912), What Happened to Officer Henderson (1913) and the science fiction film, In the Year 2000 (1912) which considers a matriarchal future world. The Consequences of Feminism (1906) is a satirical commentary on the fear of feminism. Unlike other gender swap comedies of the time, Guy-Blaché’s The Consequences of Feminism sees gender roles reversed through actions rather than costume. The film features scenes where men are harassed, tormented or mocked by women and where men are shown resisting the sexual advances of women. In the final scene of the film we see a group of men and their children support one man who is publicly shamed by his wife. The following scene takes place in a women’s club (shown earlier in the film) where women drink beer, laugh and harass anyone of the opposite sex that enters. The group of men arrive and start the revolution by pushing the women out of their club and taking their place.
This smart parody is a criticism of the actions and manners imposed by men on women. As the roles are reversed, women’s role in society is exposed: they are expected to care for children and remain quiet as they are ridiculed, harassed and sexually abused. The Consequences of Feminism is a warning to the patriarchy that, if too long mistreated, women will revolt to protect themselves. Guy-Blaché was expressing, through satire, the struggle for equality that continues into the present day.
Guy-Blaché was a businesswoman and artist and kept up with the trends her audiences loved. At Solax Studios she made western and military films and in these male dominated genres, she often placed women in leading roles. We see this in Across the Mexican Lines (1911), Two Little Rangers (1912), Parson Sue (1912) and Fight in the Dark (1912). Guy-Blaché also wrote many leading roles for children in her films depicting children as independent, resilient and action-driven characters. These included, The Concierge (1900), Gamekeeper’s Son (1906), A Four Year Old Heroine (1907) and Falling Leaves (1912). A Four Year Old Heroine, tells the story of a young girl who saves multiple lives by entangling robbers with her skipping rope, lowering a bridge so a blind man is able to cross a river and stalling a group of intoxicated men from crossing a busy road. In each of these scenes, Guy-Blaché depicts a young girl as heroine taking control of a situation in order to save men who are in danger of hurting others or themselves.
Two of Guy-Blaché’s films that exemplify her emphasis on marriage as an equal partnership are A House Divided (1913) and Matrimony’s Speed Limit (1913). Her lived experiences sometimes drove the narratives of her films. Guy-Blaché and her unfaithful husband, Herbert, had two separate film companies, however Herbert used all the Solax Studios’ resources to produce his films. There was a period when the two different production companies were sharing the same studio and it was during this time that Guy-Blaché made the film, A House Divided. This film tells the story of Gerald (Fraunie Fraunholz) and Diana Hutton (Marion Swayne) who have separated but live under the same roof. They do not talk to each other and only communicate through written notes.
Matrimony’s Speed Limit draws on this same lived experience. Our lead male character (Fraunie Fraunholz) refuses to accept financial support from his wealthy fiancée (Marion Swayne). Trying to soothe her husband’s ego, she schemes and tricks him into thinking that his aunt has died and left him a large inheritance. The twist is that he will only receive the inheritance if he marries by noon that day. The heteronormative gender expectations explored in these films allows ‘…these two extant films [to] still appeal to audiences today.’[x]
Guy-Blaché was a pioneer of filmmaking in every sense. ‘She was the first great comic director. Most of her comedies have just absolute perfect comic timing,’ Alan William states in Be Natural. Guy-Blaché’s most notable early comedies included, The Cleaning Man (1900), Race for the Sausage (1906), The Drunken Mattress (1906) and Madame’s Cravings (1906). Madame’s Cravings depicts a pregnant woman ignoring societal expectations and giving into her cravings. It was very rare to see a pregnant woman depicted in film at the time. Madame steals a lollipop from a child, absinthe from a man sitting at a cafe, fish from a beggar and a pipe from a salesman. We see the woman’s immense satisfaction as her cravings are met in close-ups. Guy-Blaché was ‘…among the first to put the close-up of the human face to dramatic use.’[xi] Madame is depicted as a bad woman, yet we are able to empathise with her pure delight and satisfaction that is enhanced in the close-up shots. At the conclusion of the film Madame gives birth to a baby in a cabbage patch paying homage to Guy-Blaché’s first narrative film.
In 1916, Guy-Blaché and Rose Pastor Stokes wrote, Shall The Parents Decide (1916), a screenplay about planned parenthood. However, the film was never screened as the premiere (which was to be at the opening on the Margaret Sanger Browsville Clinic) was never realised. Guy-Blaché also directed the film, The Ocean Waif (1916), a sophisticated story that explored domestic violence. Guy-Blaché was tackling issues that continue to be considered too confronting to represent on screen and that we are still fighting to address today.
By incorporating Be Natural and Alice Guy-Blaché’s films into the classroom, teachers can support the rejuvenation of her exceptional talent. Guy-Blaché’s story inspires students to interrogate the gaps in history where women’s influence has been purposefully forgotten due to a gender-based power dynamic that has led to the elimination of women’s voices and achievements. Women have been part of filmmaking since the beginning and their names and contributions are now resurfacing, with many resources available for students, such as the Women Film Pioneer Project.[xii] We do not want another generation to go by not knowing their legacy, their story and their exceptional contribution to cinema.
[i] Alison McMahan, ‘Alice Guy Blaché,’ in Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, & Monica Dall’Asta (eds), Women Film Pioneers Project, New York, Columbia University Libraries, New York, 2013, <https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-alice-guy-blache/>, accessed 20 October 2019.
[ii] Roberta Blaché & Simone Blaché, The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché, Scarecrow Press, Washington DC, 1996.
[iii] Allison Meier, ‘Alice Guy-Blaché, the First Woman Filmmaker’, Hyperallergic, 2017, <https://hyperallergic.com/381372/alice-guy-Blaché-first-woman-filmmaker/>, accessed 20 October 2019.
[iv] Alison McMahan, Alice Guy Blache: Lost Visionary of the Cinema, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, 2014.
[v] ibid.
[vi] Meier, 2017, op.. cit.
[vii] ibid.
[viii] McMahan, 2013, op. cit.
[ix] McMahan, 2014, op. cit.
[x] McMahan, 2013, op. cit.
[xi] McMahan, 2014, op. cit.
[xii] Women Film Pioneers Project, <https://wfpp.columbia.edu/>, accessed 20 October 2019.
