Alice Guy-Blaché

Known For

Directing

Born

Jul 01, 1873

Died

Mar 24, 1968

Place of Birth

Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France

Credits

187 titles

Alice Guy-Blaché

Biography

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

Filmography

2025

Fantastic Flowers

Director

Movie
2025

Imitation of Waves - Guy's Visions

Cinematography

Movie
2021

Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker

Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Movie
2018

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Self (archive footage)

Movie
2016

The Women Who Run Hollywood

Self (archive footage)

Movie
2007

Butterfly Dances

Director

Movie
2005

Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913

Director

Movie
1995

The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché

Self (archive footage)

Movie
1976

Qui est Alice Guy?

Self

Movie
1956

Cinépanorama

Self

Tv
1920

Tarnished Reputations

Director

Movie
1918

The Great Adventure

Director

Movie
1917

Behind the Mask

Director

Movie
1917

When You and I Were Young

Director

Movie
1917

House of Cards

Director

Movie
1917

A Man and the Woman

Director

Movie
1917

The Empress

Director

Movie
1917

The Adventurer

Director

Movie
1916

The Ocean Waif

Director

Movie
1916

The Scarlet Woman

Director

Movie
1916

What Will People Say?

Director

Movie
1915

Barbara Frietchie

Producer

Movie
1915

My Madonna

Director

Movie
1915

The Song of the Wage Slave

Director

Movie
1915

The Vampire

Director

Movie
1915

Heart of a Painted Woman

Director

Movie
1914

The Tigress

Director

Movie
1914

The Lure

Director

Movie
1914

The Woman of Mystery

Director

Movie
1914

The Monster and the Girl

Director

Movie
1914

The Dream Woman

Director

Movie
1913

The Rogues of Paris

Director

Movie
1913

The Pit and the Pendulum

Director

Movie
1913

Matrimony's Speed Limit

Director

Movie
1913

Kelly from the Emerald Isle

Writer

Movie
1913

A House Divided

Director

Movie
1913

A Severe Test

Director

Movie
1913

Dick Whittington and His Cat

Writer

Movie
1913

Burstup Homes' Murder Case

Director

Movie
1913

Officer Henderson

Director

Movie
1913

Napoleon

Director

Movie
1913

Burstup Homes

Director

Movie
1913

The Thief

Director

Movie
1913

The Coming of Sunbeam

Director

Movie
1913

Beasts of the Jungle

Writer

Movie
1913

The Roads That Lead Home

Director

Movie
1913

Cousins of Sherlocko

Director

Movie
1912

The Woman Behind the Man

Director

Movie
1912

Hearts Unknown

Director

Movie
1912

The Girl in the Arm-Chair

Director

Movie