Alice Guy-Blache

Alice Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer filmmaker who was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. She was also the first woman to establish and preside over her own film studio, Solax Studios, in the United States. Alice was born on July 1, 1873, in Saint-Mandé, France, to Émile Guy and Marie Clotilde Franceline Aubert. Her father was a bookseller and publisher who had business in Chile, where Alice spent part of her childhood. She returned to France with her family and attended a convent school. After her father's death in 1891, she trained as a typist and stenographer to support herself and her mother. In 1894, she began working as a secretary for Léon Gaumont, who owned a photography company that later became one of the leading film production companies in France. Alice was fascinated by the new invention of moving pictures and asked Gaumont for permission to make her own films. He agreed, and in 1896 she directed her first film, La Fée aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy), which is considered to be one of the first narrative fiction films ever made. Alice soon became the head of production at Gaumont and made hundreds of films in various genres, such as comedies, dramas, westerns, and adaptations of literary works. She also experimented with sound synchronization, color tinting, special effects, and interracial casting. She was one of the few female filmmakers in the world at the time and influenced many other directors with her innovative style and techniques. In 1907, Alice married Herbert Blaché, a British-born film director and producer who also worked for Gaumont. They moved to the United States in 1908 and founded their own film company, Solax Studios, in 1910. Alice was the artistic director and co-owner of Solax, which became one of the largest pre-Hollywood studios in America. She directed over 300 films for Solax, many of which featured strong female protagonists and social commentary. She also hired other women as directors, writers, and editors. Alice's career declined in the 1920s due to various factors, such as the rise of Hollywood, the advent of feature-length films, the competition from other studios, and the dissolution of her marriage. She divorced Herbert in 1922 and returned to France with her two children, Simone and Reginald. She tried to resume her filmmaking career in France but faced many difficulties and obstacles. She eventually retired from the film industry and focused on writing her memoirs. Alice spent her later years living with her daughter Simone in New Jersey. She died on March 24, 1968, at the age of 94. She was buried at Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah, New Jersey. She left behind a legacy of over 400 films that she directed or produced during her prolific career. However, many of her films were lost or forgotten over time and she received little recognition for her achievements until decades after her death. In recent years, Alice's work has been rediscovered and restored by film historians and enthusiasts. Several documentaries have been made about her life and career, such as The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché (1995), Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (2018), and Searching for Alice (2021). She has also been honored with various awards and tributes, such as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Google Doodle, and a commemorative coin by the Monnaie de Paris. She is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinema and the first woman director in film history.