Alice Guy-Blaché
Biography
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.
Acting (7 movies)
Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker
2021
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1896
Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris
1907
Animated Portrait Shot by L and A Lumière
1895
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
2018
The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché
1995
The Women Who Run Hollywood
2016
Directing (187 movies)
Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913
2005
When Marian was Married
1911
L'arroseur arrosé
1897
Saharet Performs the Bolero
1905
A Sticky Woman
1906
The Consequences of Feminism
1906
An Obstacle Course
1906
The Game-Keeper's Son
1906
Dranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu
1905
The Truth Behind the Ape-Man
1906
Félix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka"
1905
The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ
1906
Cook & Rilly's Trained Rooster
1905
The Drunken Mattress
1906
Madame's Cravings
1906
The Stepmother
1906
Ocean Studies
1906
Le Cake-walk de nouveau cirque
1905
The Race for the Sausage
1907
Félix Mayol Performs "White Lilacs"
1905
Polin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee"
1905
Dranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea"
1906
The Hierarchies of Love
1906
The Parish Priest's Christmas
1906
Félix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions"
1905
Playing Trumps
1912
The Mouse in the Crinoline
1906
The Hater of Women
1912
The Ocean Waif
1916
Danse basque
1901
Matrimony's Speed Limit
1913
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1896
Falling Leaves
1912
Disappearing Act
1898
Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance
1900
The Magician's Alms
1905
At the Photographer's
1900
Pierrette's Escapades
1900
Wonderful Absinthe
1899
Spain
1905
The Burglars
1897
Turn-of-the-Century Surgery
1900
The Statue
1905
The Turn-of-the-Century Blind Man
1898
Automated Hat-Maker and Sausage-Grinder
1900
Eccentric Dance
1902
The Bricklayers
1905
Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs
1902
An Untimely Intrusion
1902
Clown, Dog and Balloon
1905
Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter
1897
At the Club
1899
The Landlady
1900
How Monsieur Takes His Bath
1903
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1900
Avenue de l'Opéra
1900
Bathing in a Stream
1897
At the Hypnotist's
1898
Faust and Mephistopheles
1903
The Fisherman at the Stream
1897
At the Floral Ball
1900
Midwife to the Upper Class
1902
Danse Fleur de Lotus
1897
Burstup Homes' Murder Case
1913
A House Divided
1913
Canned Harmony
1912
Danse du papillon
1900
Faust
1905
Entrée Et Sortie De La Mine
1899
Danse Serpentine (In a Lion's Cage)
1900
Little Tich and His Funny Feet
1900
The Pit and the Pendulum
1913
Making an American Citizen
1912
Ballet Libella
1897
The Tigress
1914
La cène
1898
Napoleon
1913
The Girl in the Arm-Chair
1912
My Madonna
1915
Heart of a Painted Woman
1915
What Will People Say?
1916
The Woman of Mystery
1914
The Malagueña and the Bullfighter
1905
Electrocution
1904
L'utilité des rayons x
1898
Greater Love Hath No Man
1911
In the Year 2000
1912
Les démolisseurs
1896
Les congierges
1896
The Banknote
1907
L'Honneur du Corse
1906
Two Little Rangers
1912
A Fool and His Money
1912
The Monster and the Girl
1914
Algie, the Miner
1912
Cupid and the Comet
1911
Across the Mexican Line
1911
The Lure
1914
The Vampire
1915
Tramp Strategy
1911