Film history had a missing chapter added last spring with the New York Film Festival premiere of Pamela Green’s seminal documentary Be Natural:The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché. Guy-Blaché was there from the beginning. Hired as a secretary at the fledgling French film company Gaumont in 1894, she was present when the Lumiere brothers debuted their cinematographe movie projector at a private event in 1895. By 1896 she was head of production at Gaumont – writing, producing and directing dozens of films. She was among the very first true “film makers” – artists who saw the potential of the camera as a story-telling device rather than as simply a passive recording device.
Gallery 1 focuses on Guy-Blaché’s (then Alice Guy) earliest work. From the beginning, we see her dedication to scenario, as well as her penchant for comedy. Each film tells a little story, and ends with a “punchline” of sorts.
Remember, this is only a handful of the several dozen films directed by Alice Guy in this period, most of which have not survived.
The Cabbage Fairy (1896), has been called the world’s first narrative film, depicting the European fairy tale of boys being born under cabbage plants.
In At the Club (1899) a friendly card game ends in a row, with the proprietor in the middle.
Wonderful Absinthe (1899) concludes with perhaps the first seltzer-spritz-in-the-face in film history.
Chez le Photographe (1900) depicts an increasingly frustrated photographer and an incorrigible subject.
The Landlady (1900) features a ring-the-doorbell-and-run prank which results in the inadvertent dousing of an unsuspecting victim, to the general enjoyment of a the crowd of on-lookers.