Sinopsis
Fiction. A tramp comes to the rescue of a couple who are being mugged. As a reward, the man gives a bank note to their rescuer. But the clothes and the looks of the homeless man prevent him from spending it the way he would like.
Alice Guy was born on July 1st, 1873 in Saint-Mandé, France. She spent her childhood in her native land, Chile, and Switzerland. In 1894, she obtained the position of secretary in the company Comptoir général de photographie, bought by Léon Gaumont the following year and renamed as the Gaumont Company.
In 1896, Alice Guy shot her first movie, entitled La Fée aux Choux, thus becoming the first woman film director in the world. The success of La Fée aux Choux and of some of her later movies leads Léon Gaumont to create a cinema department, where Alice Guy took charge as the director.
In 1910, she set up her own production company with her husband Herbert Blaché, and she built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The company, called Solax, was the largest production firm in the United States at the time, a few years before Hollywood established its power. The company produced westerns, melodramas, and movies about the Civil War, earning great commercial success for some years.
In 1918, her husband left her and the financial standing of the studio declined. Alice Guy sold the studio in 1922 and returned to France. But the cinema world in France was then the realm of large studios, and there was no space left for women. In 1927, she came back to the United States with her two children. She died there on March 24, 1968, at the age of 95.
Thus, Alice Guy was the first person ever to direct a fiction movie. She was a pioneer in special effects, in films of science fiction, in the language of cinematography, and the founder of what would later be considered the profession of the producer. She shot over 1000 movies in her lifetime, setting up several production firms in France and in the United States, and she strove to be internationally recognized as a director, an actress, and a producer.
Friday, November 13, 2020 at 7 pm
Institut Français in Madrid
Section: Alice Guy, a film pioneer: short film selection
Year of Production: 1907
Running Time: 11’
Country: France
Language: Silent film. Original version with subtitles in Spanish
Director: Alice Guy
Production Company: Société L. Gaumont et compagnie
