Three films by Alice Guy Blachè

Streaming video - 2014

In 1907, newly-married Alice and her husband Herbert Blachè immigrated to the United States where they owned and operated their own studio plant, Solax, first located in Flushing, N.Y. and then in Fort Lee, N.J. (1910-1914). Madame Blachè, as she was then known, produced, wrote scripts and directed films; she also trained a stock company of players and technicians. Guy's preferred milieu was the domestic sphere where traditional gender roles function as the source of unusual comedic situations. In A house divided (1913), a couple each suspect that the other is having an affair and upon the advice of a lawyer, they agree to "live together separately." Hand-written notes substitute for verbal communication between the protago...nists and demonstrate Guy's skillful use of evolving narrative and stylistic devices. Canned harmony (1911), an early Solax comedy directed by Guy, incorporates devices including cross-dressing from the French Grand Guignol theatrical tradition. Billy, Evelyn's sweetheart, disguises himself as a virtuoso in order to impress her father. A phonograph secretly played by Evelyn shows Guy's ongoing interest in suggesting sound in the "silents." Falling leaves (1912) features the beautiful sets of Henri Menessieur, a Solax regular, who also worked on Guy's 1906 Gaumont passion play. Madame Blachè wrote and directed the drama which addresses the then-topical subject of tuberculosis in a heart-warming story of a young child's determination that her older sister survive until the last leaf falls. more