‘La Fée aux Choux’ by Alice Guy-Blaché: the world’s first narrative film
Men have long dominated the history of cinema. When asked to name a female director, many people draw a blank or, at least, can name just a few. In the almost 100-year tradition of the Academy Awards, only three women have won the ‘Best Director’ trophy, a fact that signals the film industry’s inherent misogyny and the lack of opportunities given to female filmmakers.
Similarly, the study of cinema’s origins, which dates back to the late 19th century, is clouded by the work of male directors, such as Georges Méliès and the Lumière brothers. Although their pioneering work was incredibly influential, they are often held to a higher level of importance than Alice Guy-Blaché, despite her significant contributions to the development of the medium.
In 1914, Guy-Blaché told The Moving Picture World: “There is nothing connected with the staging of a motion picture that a woman cannot do as easily as a man, and there is no reason she cannot master every technicality of the art…In the arts of acting, painting, music, and literature, women have long held their place among the most successful workers, and when it is considered how vitally these arts enter into the production of motion pictures, one wonders why the names of scores of women are not found among the most successful creators of photodrama offerings.”
Born in 1873, Guy-Blaché began working as a secretary for Léon Gaumont, founder of Gaumont Film Company, the world’s first film company. However, she soon became acquainted with early filmmakers such as the Lumière brothers, attending a screening of their film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory. Although she was impressed by the technology, she saw the medium’s potential for more than just capturing scenes of everyday life. With permission from Gaumont, Guy-Blaché made what is considered the world’s first narrative film, La Fée aux Choux, in 1896.
Unfortunately, the film is considered lost, although two alternative versions, filmed in 1900 and 1902, exist online. According to a scenario Guy-Blaché wrote for the 1896 film, found in a letter she wrote to Gaumount, it begins with “a pair of newlyweds” who “come upon a field of cabbages where a farmer is working.” Subsequently, “the young man leans into the ear of his young wife and asks if she would like a baby. She agrees, lowering her eyes…the young man asks permission of the farmer.” After they discover a cardboard baby, much to their disappointment, the woman “hears a cooing behind a more distant cabbage. She runs and discovers a beautiful, live baby and brings it in triumph to her husband.”
The film lasted just one minute and featured the baby’s mother jumping into the frame, which was unintended. However, the cost of shooting the film meant Guy-Blaché was forced to keep the scene, although she later referred to it as a happy accident. In the 1900 version of the project, a fairy is the main focus, and she produces multiple real babies from a cabbage patch. The director was inspired to create the film after seeing Dr Alexandre Lion’s exhibition of premature babies in incubators displayed on a street in Montmartre. Finally, her 1902 version, titled Sage-femme de première classe, seemed to blend the ideas of the first two films, with a newlywed couple visiting a ‘baby merchant’ that picks babies from a cabbage patch.
Following the creation of her first film, Guy-Blaché became the head of production at Gaumont, where she remained the only female director between 1896 and 1906. While at the company, she experimented with groundbreaking cinematic effects such as double exposure, playing films backwards, and the Chronophone system, which synced sound with the images projected on the screen. Moreover, she helped develop the process of colour-tinting and even used an all-black cast for her film A Fool and His Money, which was potentially the first film ever to do so.
Guy-Blaché had an incredibly successful career, founding her own company Solax Studios, and directing over 1,000 films in her lifetime, although many are now lost. She experimented with early feminist themes and often employed a satirical tone in her movies, such as The Consequences of Feminism, in which she reversed men’s and women’s roles, demonstrating her forward-thinking approach to exploring important social issues. She was a true pioneer who highlighted the vital importance of female voices in cinema, and La Fée aux Choux was a landmark step in the development of narrative film, which deserves to be celebrated.
