Alice Guy-Blaché
- Directing
- July 1, 1873 · Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France
- March 24, 1968
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.
Known for
Filmography
- Fantastic Flowers · Director
- Imitation of Waves - Guy's Visions · Cinematography
- Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker · Self
- Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché · Self
- The Women Who Run Hollywood · Self
- Butterfly Dances · Director
- Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913 · Director
- The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché · Self
- Qui est Alice Guy? · Self
- Cinépanorama · Self
- Tarnished Reputations · Director, Producer
- The Great Adventure · Director
- Behind the Mask · Director
- When You and I Were Young · Director
- House of Cards · Director, Writer
- A Man and the Woman · Director, Screenplay
- The Empress · Director, Writer
- The Adventurer · Director
- The Ocean Waif · Director
- The Scarlet Woman · Director, Producer
- What Will People Say? · Director
- Barbara Frietchie · Producer
- My Madonna · Director, Writer
- The Song of the Wage Slave · Director
- The Vampire · Director, Producer
- Heart of a Painted Woman · Director
- The Tigress · Director
- The Lure · Writer, Director
- The Woman of Mystery · Director, Scenario Writer
- The Monster and the Girl · Director
- The Dream Woman · Director, Screenplay
- The Rogues of Paris · Director, Producer
- The Pit and the Pendulum · Director
- Matrimony's Speed Limit · Director, Producer
- Kelly from the Emerald Isle · Writer
- A House Divided · Director, Producer
- A Severe Test · Director
- Dick Whittington and His Cat · Writer, Director
- Burstup Homes' Murder Case · Director
- Officer Henderson · Director
- Napoleon · Director
- Burstup Homes · Director
- The Thief · Director
- The Coming of Sunbeam · Director
- The Roads That Lead Home · Producer, Director
- Beasts of the Jungle · Writer, Producer
- Cousins of Sherlocko · Director
- The Woman Behind the Man · Director
- Hearts Unknown · Director
- The Girl in the Arm-Chair · Director, Producer
- The Hater of Women · Director
- The Face at the Window · Director
- A Comedy of Errors · Director, Producer
- The New Love And The Old · Producer, Director
- Making an American Citizen · Producer, Director
- The High Cost of Living · Director
- Canned Harmony · Director, Producer
- The Love of the Flag · Director
- Treasures on the Wing · Director
- The Fight in the Dark · Director
- Dublin Dan · Producer
- Playing Trumps · Director
- His Double · Director
- Phantom Paradise · Director
- The Equine Spy · Producer
- The Strike · Director
- Two Little Rangers · Director
- Broken Oaths · Director
- For Love of the Flag · Director
- Fra Diavolo · Director, Writer
- In the Year 2000 · Director
- Souls in the Shadow · Director
- The Wooing of Alice · Director
- The Reformation of Mary · Director, Producer
- The Sewer · Producer
- Child of the Tenements · Director
- Falling Leaves · Director, Writer
- Blighted Lives · Director
- Algie, the Miner · Producer, Director
- God Disposes · Director