The Very Natural Films of Alice Guy-Blaché

Artifice and nature in the movies of the earliest woman director.

This is a 7000 word piece on the work of Alice Guy-Blaché, who is generally considered the first woman director. Her films explore gender roles and nature; she’s one of my favorite filmmakers.

This essay first appeared in my ebook on women filmmakers, The Consequences of Feminism. You can purchase that here, if you’d rather read it in that venue. And/or, paid subscribers can read the essay below.

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The Very Natural Films of Alice Guy-Blaché

"Be natural."

Alice Guy-Blaché, the first female film director, had those words emblazoned on banners hung everywhere in her American studio in the early 1900s, according to her memoir. For film actors today, that advice might seem…well, natural. Film performance in the contemporary era is naturalistic by default; people are supposed to perform as they really would if no one were watching.

In her day, however, Guy-Blaché's slogan was a revelation. Actor Leon Smith, who was at the studio in 1914 according to McMahon's Guy-Blaché biography, was so impressed by the banner that it stuck with him for the rest of his life and career. Most directors of the time, he said, told actors to "pose for the camera." Guy-Blaché's advice to be natural was strange, wonderful, exciting, inspirational. It was, in short, not natural at all.