Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema

by Alison McMahan

Overview

Alice Guy BlachT (1873-1968), the world's first woman filmmaker, was one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. From 1896 to 1920 she directed 400 films (including over 100 synchronized sound films), produced hundreds more, and 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). However, her role in film history was completely forgotten until her own memoirs were published in 1976. This new book tells her life story and fills in many gaps left by the memoirs. Guy BlachT's life and 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, the development of film narrative, and feminist film theory. The book provides a close analysis of the one hundred Guy BlachT films that survive, and in the process rewrites early cinema history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501302688
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	08/22/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Alison McMahan is an award-winning screenwriter, author, and filmmaker. She is the president of Homunculus Productions, LLC. Her most recent film is Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs (2010) narrated by Sam Waterston. She is currently in post-production on the feature documentary The Eight Faces of Jane (2013) and the short documentary Gluteus Maxximus (2012). She has over twenty years of experience in film production, both in the U.S. and abroad, producing, directing and writing industrials, training films, and short fiction films. More information on her film work can be found at www.HomunculusProds.com.

She is the author the award-winning book Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema (Continuum 2002), which was translated into Spanish by Plots Ediciones and has been optioned by the PIC agency to be made into a documentary film. She is also the author of The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Hollywood (Continuum 2005) as well as numerous newspaper and scholarly articles on film and new media, www.AliceGuyBlache.com and www.FilmsofTimBurton.com. Full list of publications can be found at www.AlisonMcMahan.com.

She is currently working on a historical novel.

Editorial Reviews

Oddly enough, the life and work of the first woman filmmaker has received little attention. McMahan redresses the oversight by critically and comprehensively analyzing the contributions of Alice Guy Blach (1873-1968). A filmmaker herself and one of the foremost authorities on the subject of early cinema, McMahan examines the themes of the few remaining Guy Blach films, the techniques of her actors, and the evolution of a film "language" in the director's choice of shots. In her quest to uncover her subject through contact with original primary sources, McMahan reveals why research into early cinema can be problematic: it is difficult enough even to locate material, much less ascribe attribution. The author's firsthand "discoveries" also have implications for the conceptualization of early cinema. Meticulously documented, this book tells not only what this film pioneer did but also why her work is important. Anecdotal nuggets make the study compelling for general readers, too. Recommended for film history collections. Jayne Plymale, Univ. of Georgia, Athens Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal