If his name doesn't ring a bell, don't panic, you're not alone. Under her appearance as a ghost of the history of cinema, Alice Guy is in fact one of the first builders. Yet, despite the considerable impact of her work on the film industry, Alice Guy is one of those women forgotten by history. The world's first female director, she is also a screenwriter, producer and even creator of the making-of concept. In a strongly masculine environment, the path that leads from the position of secretary to that of founder of Solax studios is not easy for Alice Guy …
Alice Guy, pioneer of the audiovisual world
After the screening of La sortie de l'usine Lumière in Lyon (Louis Lumière, 1895), an idea germinated in Alice Guy's head. Then secretary on behalf of Léon Gaumont, she does not lack ambition. Why not use the chronophotographer to make enough to boost sales of the camera, which are struggling to take off? Determined to put her ideas into practice, Alice asks her boss to be able to use the chronophotographer to tackle the task. Gaumont, who was not interested in anything except selling, initially refused, then changed his mind. It allows Alice to shoot, provided of course "that it is outside her working hours".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY_UQgVULfk&t=204s
This is how Alice Guy signed in 1896, one of the first films in the history of cinema. Entitled La fée aux choux, it features a woman taking out cabbage infants in front of an amused audience. Considered the first fiction film, it was released the same year as the short film, Une partie de cartes, directed by George Méliès.
Alice Guy propelled to the front of the stage
Little by little, Alice Guy gave up her position as secretary at the Comptoir général de la photographie to devote herself to directing. She emancipates herself, not only as a woman, but also as an employee, to live her passion for cinema. Thanks to her, Gaumont turned completely to the 7th Art, and now competed with its biggest competitor, Pathé. Between 1897 and 1907, Alice Guy, a true jack-of-all-trades, made more than 200 films. Not closing itself to any genre, it juggles between comedies and dramas, documentaries and westerns, war and historical films… Let's not forget that it is to her that we owe the birth of the fantasy genre!
At the cutting edge of technology…
In 1905, Alice Guy pushed the limits of the technology of the time and produced more than 150 phonoscenes. This term, a little convoluted, simply refers to a film whose sound and image are synchronized thanks to a chronophone. Designed by Georges Demenÿ, the process was bought and developed by Léon Gaumont and his engineers from 1902.
The steps of synchronization are simple. First, sound (song or lyrics) is recorded on a wax disc (and around 1906, electrically). During the shooting of the images, the phonograph (which was used to record the audio track) is launched at the same time as the camera. The actors only have to mimic the lyrics and songs, following the principle of playback. In the same way, during projection, the projector and the phonograph are started simultaneously by a technician. Using cues on the reel and the disc, the latter manages the synchronization of sound and image. In the case of an offset, the technician can change the speed of the coil with a joystick.
… but not quite yet
Already well evolved, the process remains limited: indeed, synchronization is not always optimal. In addition, during screenings, audibility remains low for the audience who must listen in order to hear well. Finally, there is always the problem of recording during filming, since the sound source must be very close to the phonograph pavilion. It is therefore impossible to record without the devices being in the field of what is not yet called "camera".
Between 1906 and 1910 appeared the concept of sound amplification by compressed air. This technique combines the use of a microphone and recording on disc, now electric. It allows the devices to be positioned off-screen to retrieve sound, since a short distance between the subject and the horn is no longer necessary. Thanks to the use of electricity, the speed of the coil, set to that of the phonograph so as not to distort the sound, is regulated by a motor, which guarantees better synchronization. During projections, the chronophone is placed behind the screen to give the impression that the sound comes out of the image. Long used in cinemas around the world, this principle is nevertheless increasingly being replaced by speakers distributed in cinemas.
Alice Guy, committed filmmaker and feminist
In 1906, Alice Guy directed Les résultats du féminisme, a short film in which the roles of men and women were reversed. Through this sarcastic work, Alice Guy portrays a deeply misogynistic society. For nearly seven minutes, meticulously dressed men put on makeup, do household chores and take care of the children. Meanwhile, women gather with each other to smoke, drink and read newspapers. They even play womanizers during a comic scene where an unfortunate young man is dragged in the street. Instead of aging badly, The Results of Feminism has really improved, like a good wine. In a few minutes, Alice Guy questions the notion of gender, denounces the mental load of women and crucifies misogyny and sexism.
A controversial short film
Little, if anything, remains of the film's reception by audiences at the time. Placing the work in context, however, we can assume that it was perceived as misplaced, or too avant-garde. Recall that according to the rumor, Léon Gaumont himself asked that each sex resume "its role" at the end of the film. A probable hypothesis, since indeed, it is difficult to imagine Alice Guy, precursor of the feminist movement, choosing this end. Download Latest Crack Softwares
It is interesting to look at this work through the prism of today's society. Nearly a century later, gender role stereotypes remain prevalent, and behaviors such as street harassment are not uncommon. On the realization side, we do not note anything very ambitious for the moment. The shots are fixed, and there are in all, about five sets. There is no sound yet, although an audio track is sometimes added by amateurs on YouTube.
Alice Guy aims for the stars
The same year as The Results of Feminism, Alice embarked on one of the biggest projects of her career. She directed the medium-length film The Birth, Life and Death of Christ (or The Life of Christ). The first peplum in the history of cinema, it retraces the life of Christ in several episodes. More complex in directing than his previous creations, the film brings together a multitude of sets, actors and extras. It also features some tricks, certainly a little summary for our time, but nevertheless interesting.
The subject, more serious than that of his comic short films, gives a whole new dimension to this film. Totally silent, the latter requires more attention when watching, because we quickly tend to drop out. Indeed, partly because of limited equipment (a single objective), the shots are long and the whole is sorely lacking in dynamism. If the "comic" side is no longer there to give rhythm, we can still count on the beauty of the costumes and sets to entertain ourselves.
Suffering from a visual quality obviously much lower than what we know now, the film can give an impression of "clutter" unpleasant to our eyes almost totally accustomed to 4K. The acting, very theatrical, is the opposite of what spectators are used to seeing in the cinema nowadays. That being said, the explicit gestures, sometimes a little ridiculous, compensate for the absence of words and allow a better understanding of the story.
The Birth, Life and Death of Christ
A lack of clear narration, poor images and not necessarily natural transitions sometimes make it difficult to appreciate the first audiovisual works. This is all the more evident when they tell a complex story. For example, in The Arrival of a Train at the Station, there is not much to understand, it is rather a demonstration of the technology.
Viewing The Birth, Life and Death of Christ requires placing the work in context. Religion then had a much more important place in society. Unlike today, knowledge about the Bible and the life of Christ was commonplace. In short, it was easier for the public of the time to apprehend this film. Let us recall that at its release, the law of separation of State and Church is still relatively fresh. It was introduced on December 9, 1905, just a few months before the projection of the peplum.
Divided into 25 acts, The Birth, Life and Death of Christ employs nearly 300 people. The sets are large and the budget supporting the production is titanic for the time. Alice Guy uses hitherto undeveloped filmmaking techniques. There are several travellings, especially in the chapter "Climbing Golgotha". Several protagonists are filmed wandering in the heart of the mountains, revealing at the same time the grandeur of the sets used.
Tricks as old as the world
The most used trick here is overprinting, a special effect whose origins go back to the theatre. The process is simple: first, painted glass plates were inserted into a magic lantern. Thanks to a light source, the device was then used to project images, often fantastic, during public performances.
Like Alice Guy, it is a projection of the Lumière brothers that inspires George Méliès, who also decides to stage moving images. He directed several short films such as L'Arroseur arrosé, Une partie de cartes and Une bonne farce. However, he quickly abandoned traditional shots to move towards the fantastic and thus adapted the principle of the magic lantern to the cinema.
As the name suggests, overprinting consists of superimposing several different images to form a whole. Here are the different steps of execution of this trick. Protagonists are first filmed normally in front of a set (in the case of Méliès, often trompe-l'oeil). A cover is then attached in front of the lens to prevent light from passing through. A technician then reassembles the film reel to its starting point. This was usually marked with a small notch to ensure the best possible layering. A second shot was then made on a black background, in order to preserve the sets filmed previously. This technique of filming several scenes on a single support was thus used to obtain a superposition of images. Overprinting, inseparable from the fantastic cinema of the time, made it possible to stage dreams, ghosts and other fantasies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw8qoxbmtec&t=433s
A trick often put at the service of a fantastic narrative, overprinting is omnipresent in Alice Guy's medium-length film. This process is used in particular to make angels appear, but also to stage the resurrection of Christ during the last act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBlhgJzkA88
Conquering the American dream
In 1907, after the success of The Life of Christ, Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché, Gaumont's English representative in Berlin. Together, they flew to the United States to represent the company, still chaired by Léon Gaumont. Curious, Alice adapts quickly and easily to American culture. She began directing westerns, detectives and action films. Only three years after her arrival on the new continent, she opened her own production company, Solax, in 1910.
Continuing her conquest of the film industry, she invested nearly $100,000 in the construction of studios on the east coast of the United States. Located in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the studios quickly became the epicenter of the film industry of the time. In the 1910s, cinema was no longer a simple curiosity: it was a real business that paid off big. With this in mind, Alice imagines perfectly equipped studios in which all stages of production can be carried out.
Solax Studios, a jewel signed Alice Guy
Buildings dedicated to the manufacture of costumes, sets and filming props are thus set up. Alice's complex even includes, in addition to administrative offices, a state-of-the-art film processing laboratory.
The films produced by Alice Guy for Solax were often well received by critics and American audiences. With a monthly salary of around $25,000, she became the highest-paid woman in the United States and made history once again. Always ahead of her time, Alice Guy had African-American actors play all the roles in her film A Fool and His Money (1912). White actors had indeed refused to appear on screen with their black counterparts. She introduces stuntmen and even wild animals into her productions. Until 1917, Alice dominated the world of cinema.
The Fall of Icarus
After ruining her because of her dubious investments, Herbert Blaché leaves Alice for an actress. Both fly to Hollywood, now the new temple of the 7th art. Alice follows Herbert to the west coast and assists him on several shoots, before returning to France. Divorced and in debt, Alice Guy was forced to sell her Fort Lee studio in order to pay off her debts. Accompanied by her two children, she settled on the Côte d'Azur in the hope of making a place for herself in French cinema.
Despite her important contributions to the audiovisual industry, she finds all the doors closed. Even Léon Gaumont seems to have forgotten her, and will never publicly refer to her work. In a desperate attempt to get her hands on her films, Alice traveled to the United States in the early 1930s. Unfortunately, almost nothing remains of the masterful work she brought into the world during her stay on the new continent. Denial or contempt? One thing is certain, Alice Guy's brilliant career ends here. In the face of all these disappointments, it will never turn again.
Humiliated by this unfair failure, Alice began writing children's stories under the pseudonym Guy Alix. In 1957, she received a tribute from the Cinémathèque Française, solicited by Louis Gaumont, Léon's son. Alice died at the age of 94 on March 24, 1968, five years after the publication of her biography by Victor Bachy.
Victim of a misogynistic society
Avant-garde and visionary, Alice Guy remains one of the most iconic characters in the film industry. An exceptional woman, she saw the birth of cinema more than a hundred years ago, and accompanied it in its development. Crossing borders, his bold creations have earned him international success, from Europe to the United States.
The first female filmmaker in history, Alice Guy tamed sound before it became commonplace in cinema. Beyond a fledgling technology that is difficult to manage, it is men who have hindered his career the most. If Léon Gaumont offered him his chance to start, he later turned his back on him. Her husband Herbert, unfaithful and bad manager, earned her his brutal decline from the industry. Mother of cinema in the same way as Méliès and the Lumière brothers, Alice Guy contributed to the first steps of today's great houses. Before merging to become MGM in 1924, Goldwyn Pictures produced a few films within the studios created by Alice. Born in 1915, the Metro Pictures Corporation even distributed Solax productions before the emergence of Hollywood.
Unjustly forgotten by an ungrateful environment
Despite an impressive track record, Alice Guy's name has been erased from the history of cinema. This now flourishing industry, which owes everything to her, has unfairly relegated her to the rank of mere extra, if not less. What would Gaumont be today without Alice Guy's vision and initiative? How could a filmmaker praised by Hitchcock and Eisenstein be hidden from the history of cinema?
Unfortunately, the answer is part of a sad reality, that of the fate of many artists, even today. Between contempt, ignorance and misogyny, it remains complicated for women to impose themselves, regardless of the field. If men retain a prominent place in the world of cinema and directing, women are gradually beginning to impose themselves. These are increasingly visible, even if it is always difficult to name female directors. The democratization of social networks and new means of communication nevertheless allows them to make their works better known.
A century later, Alice Guy rises from the ashes
Despite a tragic end to her career, Alice Guy remains proof that nothing is impossible for those who give themselves the means to succeed. Without ever letting herself be defeated, the filmmaker was able to climb the ladder to rise among the men of the field. More than fifty years after her death, the creator of the iconic Cabbage Fairy returns to the front of the stage. Who better than a woman to tell Alice Guy's story? Screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2018, Pamela B. Green pays a moving tribute to the director. Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché traces the history of cinema through the life and career of Alice Guy. Bringing together nearly eight years of research, this feature film was officially released in French cinemas on June 22, 2020.
For fans of the first hours of cinema, Alice Guy's short films are mostly royalty-free. They are available for free on Youtube in their full version, just like the latest short film of Golden Moustache which Alice is the star. The latter imagines the exchange between Alice and Léon when she asks him for permission to use the chronophotographer. A true delight that brings together Camille Claris (in the role of Alice Guy), Béatrice Facquer, Kyan Khojandi (Léon Gaumont) and David Salles.
A dossier by Lucile Carpentier and Morgan Verres
