Film history is about to have a missing chapter added with the premiere of Pamela Green’s Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché at the IFC Center on Friday. Alice was hired as a secretary at the fledgling French film company Gaumont in 1894. Within 2 years she head of production, writing, producing and directing dozens of films. She was among the very first “film makers” — artists who saw the potential of the camera as a story-telling device rather than as simply a passive recording device.
The film, which premiered at the New York Film Festival, is narrated by Jodie Foster, who also has an executive producer credit. On Friday night at 7:05, there will be Q&A with Green, co-writer Joan Simon, and author and NYU adjunct professor Drake Stutesman.
The ménage a trois continues at Film Forum this weekend. The series Trilogy showcases Ingmar Bergman’s God and Man Trilogy, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy and Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy.
In New Jersey, The Landmark Loew’s in Jersey City is screening both versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame: the 1939 classic starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara, Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell and Edmond O’Brien, and the 1923 silent Lon Chaney, Sr. classic (with live organ accompaniment). A portion of the admission charge will go towards the effort to restore the iconic structure which was recently ravaged by fire.
New on Blu-ray from Kit Parker Films: Noir-Archive-Volume-1-1944-1954. It’s a three-disc set containing nine films:
- Address Unknown (1944)
- Escape in the Fog (1945)
- The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947)
- The Black Book (1949)
- Johnny Allegro (1949)
- The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)
- 711 Ocean Drive (1950)
- Assignment Paris! (1952)
- The Miami Story (1954)
Also now available on Blu-ray:
- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
- Summer Stock (1950)
- Pink Panther Cartoons (1976 – 1978)
