Born in Paris in 1873, Guy was the youngest daughter of the writer Emile Guy and Marie Clotilde Franceline Aubert. Her father's passion for literature aroused in her the desire to know and get closer to the artistic and literary branches.

A few years later, after having studied as a secretary, she became the personal secretary of Leon Gaumont (1895), a man who was in turn in charge of perfecting the Lumière's camera, turning it into a 60mm camera and later adapting it to the standards that prevailed at the time.

Alice, seeing the potential of the device that Gaumont had perfected, asked him to allow her to carry out stories using it, in order to avoid the monotony to which they were subjected. Her boss allows her to carry out her experiments only on Sundays, so Alice accepts and intends to demonstrate her project.

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Shortly after, Alice made her first film called "La Fee aux Choux, The Cabbage Fairy", in 1896, a work that came out to the public a few weeks before Georges Méliès entered the film industry.

Gaumont observes the success of her project, which also increases the sales of her company, so he decides to appoint her as the head of the new production company. His films walked among scenes of civilians, opera cousins, militants and so on. His productions and success allowed him to produce up to 2 short films per week. In 1905, she became the supervisor of all the directors of the production company.

Two years later she marries Herbert Blache and they go to the United States together. There he has a daughter named Simone Blache (1909) and is dedicated to household and family chores. In 1910 she returned to film directing and production with her husband and founded a production company called Solax Company, which, in addition to producing more than 320 films, was considered the best equipped studio of its time in the state of New Jersey. In 19013 she gave birth to her second son Reginald Blache and continued with her productions until 1920.

His productions are in decline as he is unable to compete against Hollywood, which was already the world's largest film producer - and also owns most of the patents. - which makes her give up independent filmmaking. In conjunction with this, her marriage plummeted and she decided to close her business finally, leading her to give talks on the beginnings of cinema.

He returned to France in 1922, his career as a filmmaker was over and he decided to live a quiet life with his children. In 1964 he decided to return to the United States with his children, where, in search of clues to his films, he found nothing but plagiarism under other names within the Library of Congress and film archives.

In 1949 she returned to Paris at the age of 76, where she was honored as the world's first female film director and received the Chevalier insignia of the Legion of Honour.

She finally dies in New Jersey at the age of 95, forgotten by history. His shearing did not appear in any local or international newspapers.
Contributions to the Cinema | Alice Guy

First of all, as a major contribution to the cinema, we have to emphasize the fact that we are the first person to use narrative cinema in a real way, something that was not completely present in the Lumiere brothers' cinema before.

"Falling Leaves" (1912)

In addition to this we have that among her experiments is considered the pioneer of special effects. This is due to his constant play with double exposure masks and filming of backwards sequences. These techniques have been attributed to Méliès. But if we look at his work, works like Pierrot's Christmas are rich in overprints, while in A Demolished and Rebuilt House he matches the inverted reproduction of his cinematographic pieces.

The Chronophone invented by his boss Gaumont, was also used in his film productions where Alice made the synchronization of the audio and video to generate a greater emotional state at the time of any action in the film, as well as the lip-sync of the characters.

Felix Mayol Performs White Lilacs (1905)

Another example of his contributions to filmmaking also comes with his color experimentation in which Alice uses tinted frame by frame to give a more realistic effect to his works.

Pierrette's Escapades (1900)

Filmography

Among the films made by Alice Guy recovered are those presented below:

The Cabbage Fairy, Le sang d'Adonis donnant naissance à la rose rouge, L'assassinat du courrier de Lyon, The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ.

Other films not listed: La Esmeralda, 1950, based on Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Pit and Pendulum, 1913, Shadows of Moulin Rouge, 1913, and My Madonna, 1915.

In her works, Alice Guy was an acknowledged "all-rounder", as they would say today, capable of experimenting with the products of her imagination, developing not only resources for cinema but also for the evolution of the cinematic language. In addition to this, her contribution comes not only from technical creation but also from her personal view as director, writer and creator, where she, defying the morality that existed in her time, was able to impose herself on the will of men, becoming the protagonist and making the arguments of women heard. A true feminist capable of defending gender equality and tackling the problems that then plagued the female sex in society. Drama, Action and Comedy were strong weapons to assert themselves in her film career and as a woman consolidating herself as a creator oriented to social growth beyond entertainment.