Alice Guy-Blaché

Filmmakers

Alice Guy or Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) was a French pioneer filmmaker, active from the late 19th century, and one of the very first to make a narrative fiction film. She was the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with Gaumont’s Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects.

She was artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios in Flushing, New York. In 1912, Solax invested $100,000 for a new studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the center of American filmmaking prior to the establishment of Hollywood. That year, she made the film A Fool and His Money, probably the first to have an all-African-American cast. The film is now at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896) – aka La Fée aux Choux
  • At the Hypnotist’s (1898)
  • Wonderful Absinthe (1899)
  • At the Photographer’s (1900)
  • The Cabbage-Patch Fairy (1900)
  • Turn-of-the-Century Surgery (1900)
  • Danse serpentine (1900)
  • Bataille de boules de neige (1900)
  • Midwife to the Upper Class (1902)
  • Les chiens savants (1902)
  • La Esméralda (1905) – based on the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • Alice Guy Films a “Phonoscène” (1905)
  • Une histoire roulante (1906)
  • The Life of Christ (1906)
  • Les Résultats du féminisme (1906)
  • The Results of Feminism (1906)
  • The Drunken Mattress (1906)
  • The Hierarchy of Love (1906)
  • Madame Has Her Cravings (1906)
  • A Sticky Woman (1906)
  • The Rolling Bed (1907)
  • The Glue (1907)
  • La barricade (1907)
  • Fanfan la Tulipe (1907)
  • One Touch of Nature (1910)
  • The Sergeant’s Daughter (1910)
  • The Pawnshop (1910)
  • Greater Love Hath No Man (1911)
  • Starting Something (1911)
  • Parson Sue (1911)
  • Broken Oath (1912)
  • A Comedy of Errors (1912)
  • The Detective’s Dog (1912)
  • Frozen on Love’s Trail (1912)
  • The Girl in the Armchair (1912)
  • His Double (1912)
  • Making an American Citizen (1912)
  • A Man’s a Man (1912)
  • The Sewer (1912)
  • The Strike (1912)
  • A Terrible Lesson (1912)
  • The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)
  • Matrimony’s Speed Limit (1913)
  • A House Divided (1913)
  • Shadows of the Moulin Rouge (1913)
  • Cousins of Sherlocko (1913)
  • Dick Whittington and His Cat (1913)
  • Officer Henderson (1913)
  • The Thief (1913)
  • Mr. Bruce Wins at Cards (1914)
  • The Lure (1914)
  • The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1915)
  • The Vampire (1915)
  • The Ocean Waif (1916)
  • What Will People Say? (1916)
  • The Adventurer (1917)
  • The Great Adventure (1918)
  • Tarnished Reputations (1920)