Madame a des envies (Madam has her cravings) : a critical analysis of the short films of Alice Guy Blache, the first woman filmmaker
Alice Guy Blache (1873-1968) was the first woman filmmaker. From 1896 to 1920 she directed over 400 films, 22 of which were features, and produced hundreds more. She was the first--and so far the only--woman to own and run her own studio plant (The Solax Studio in Fort Lee, NJ, 1910-1914). My study began with a search through archives all over Europe and the U.S. for her extant films; I identified, or assisted in the identification, of approximately 30 films and participated in fundraising efforts for their preservation. This study focuses on the 83 films by Guy that survive, many in fragments. With these films, included for the first time in one study, I was able to situate her career in an historical context, starting with her first cinema of attractions film La Fee aux choux (1896) made in Paris, covering the synchronized sound films she made before 1906, making the transition to the U.S. with her in 1907, and ending with her only preserved feature, the Ocean Waif (1915). Milestones in Guy's career mirrored momentous changes in the film industry, and the long time-span and sheer volume of her output makes her films a fertile territory for the application of new theories of cinema history (such as Gunning, Staiger and Abel's). the study also applies feminist theories on voice (Silverman), gaze (Mulvey et al.) and subjectivity (Flitterman-Lewis) to her work. This study shows that Guy's "female voice" took the form of direct female address. This address usually takes the form of active female agency. the study includes the active female heroes of Guy's westerns, the comparison of matriarchal and patriarchal power in the gendered spaces of her melodramas, and the liminality of gender identity shown through comedies of cross-dressing. These elements are situated in the context of the ongoing cultural discourses of her day, i.e., the social concerns in France and the U.S. as the Victorian era gave way to the modern one
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 1997