Alice Guy-Blaché
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
DirectingBirthday
July 1, 1873Deathday
March 24, 1968Gender
FemaleKnown Movie Credits
176Place of birth
Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, FranceAlso known as
Alice Guy Blaché, Alice Blaché, Madame Alice Blaché, Alice Guy-Blache , Alice Guy-Blaché, Alice Blache, Alice Guy Blache, Alice GuyCast credits
Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker
Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris
Herself, the directorBe Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Self (archive footage)The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché
Self (archive footage)The Women Who Run Hollywood
Self (archive footage)Crew credits
The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
Director of Photography, Director, WriterGaumont Treasures 1897-1913
DirectorMaking an American Citizen
Producer, Director, WriterFélix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka"
DirectorLe Cake-walk de nouveau cirque
DirectorA Sticky Woman
Director, WriterMadame's Cravings
Director, WriterFélix Mayol Performs "White Lilacs"
DirectorThe Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ
Director, WriterCook & Rilly's Trained Rooster
DirectorDranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu
DirectorFélix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions"
DirectorSaharet Performs the Bolero
DirectorPolin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee"
DirectorDranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea"
DirectorThe Stepmother
Director