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)