She Done Him Wrong. 1933. Director: Lowell Sherman, Writers: Mae West, Harvey F. Thew (screen play), & Stars: Mae West, Cary Grant.
Some Like It Hot. 1959. Writers: Billy Wilder (screenplay) & I.A.L. Diamond. Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon.
Class exercise was to analyze the film three ways: 1)Anti-military or Fascist, 2)Lesbian infatuation (between teacher and Manuela) or is it 3)a mother/daughter mentor guiding her.
The story of forgotten silent filmmaker Alice Guy and her more than 700 films.
"La vie et l'oeuvre d'Alice Guy-Blaché (The Lost Garden: the life and films of Alice Guy-Blaché)" Documentary, Biography. Canadian, 1995. Director: Marquise Lepage; Writers: Solange Collin, Marquise Lepage; Stars: Alice Guy, Roberta Blaché, Adrienne Blaché-Channing.
Alice Guy-Blaché, Parisian (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) Active years 1894-1922. She was the first female Filmmaker, Director, Screenwriter& Producer. She created the first narrative film "La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy)" in 1896 about six months before the Lumiere brother's film "A Trip to the Moon". The documentary was partly interviews with her granddaughter Adrienne Blaché-Channing and a researched documentary with film clips.
Two other films of Alice Guy were screened: "The Life and Death of Christ" 1909 (30 Minutes) and "A House Divided" 1913. Last was a short by Lois Weber, "How Men Propose" 1913.
Assignment: Write on the achievements of Alice Guy-Blaché
Achievements: 1) At the Gaumont studio in Paris, she started as a secretary. Later she became head of the studio:a director, set-designer and producer. She was at the same time required to continue her secretarial duties. 2)She shot the first non-fiction narrative film at a time when there were real films of trains or traffic. 3) Alice went to the U.S. with her director husband and prospered in the U.S. by establishing her own studio on the east coast named Solax, the largest and state of art studio in the U.S. 4) Not only did she run her own studio but did it while raising her children. Her salary was one of the largest at time. She was making $25,000 in the early century. 5) Alice created new film special effects like floating angels and Christ rising from the tomb. Her film shots and sets had three planes of action. A foreground, middle ground and perspective. This framing was later credited as being developed by Orson Wells. 6) Unusual for the time she filmed outside the studio with natural light. 7)She had better quality acting from her actors as she asked them to "Be natural" when they acted. This was different from exaggerated acting of the time. 8) She shot over 700 films.
Other background: Things did not end well for Alice Guy-Blaché. Her husband left her for a young woman in Hollywood and divorced her. He also filed for bankruptcy and sold her studio Solax. She was broke and went back to France. Besides a few small films, she was not able to film anymore. She returned to the U.S. to live with her daughter and also try to rectify that men were credited for her film work instead of her. She was unsuccessful with the studios but did leave a trail of her films in an autobiography she wrote about her work towards the end of her life.
First film of the class is My Brilliant Career. Australian. Director Gillian Armstrong. Writers: Miles Franklin (novel) & Eleanor Whitcombe. Actors: Judy Davis (of later Woody Allen movie fame) & Sam Neill.My assessment: Wizard of Oz meets Pride and Prejudice with Australian grit and non-Darcy ending.
Class assignment: Discuss Sybella's looks.
Sybella had both high esteem and realistic esteem about her looks. She knew that she was not attractive and it gave her freedom to express herself without feeling that it would count against her in society since she felt she was not a part of the "beautiful women to be betrothed set".
Her mother, due to Sybella's looks, found her useless as someone they couldn't marry off and was a burden financially to them. Luckily her grandmother, a proper Victorian woman, saved her from beoming a full-time maid and her dusty life in the outback.
Her grandmother took her into her beautiful home with servants and started dressing her and treating her like a lady. She was less critical of her and thought marriage was possible for her. She tried to encourage her to marry a nerdy man Frank who would inherit money in England.
There was another bachelor, Harry, who was very handsome and in-demand. He became infatuated with her wild un-Victorian ways. In the end, she turned down his marriage proposal. She wanted her independence to be a free full writer. Also she did not want him to be a burden by her lack of looks and society training when he had the ability to marry into beauty and wealth
Film Background: The film is a dramatization of the autobiography of the same name by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin. She was a famous Victorian Australian author. Later in life she came out as a lesbian.
