Name: Making an American Citizen
Director: Alice Guy
Released: 1912
Cast: Blanche Cornwall, Lee Beggs

Blanche Cornwall

Lee Beggs

Ivan Orloff, who beats his wife and trades her as a slave, leaves Eastern Europe to settle in the United States, a land of freedom. There, he has a bitter experience of respect for women, and takes four lessons of &quot;Americanism&quot;.&nbsp;

Note: Feminist and incredibly modern, this film also evokes the conditions of integration of foreigners in the USA (such as Alice Guy) who are under social and economic pressure.

Alice Guy

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Making an American Citizen

English

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Mary Foy

Mace Greenleaf

Marian Swayne

Magda Foy

Darwin Karr

The moves of a worried young girl trying to save her little sister suffering from tuberculosis.

Lobster Films

Falling Leaves

A son from a good family is introduced by his parents to a young girl whom they would like to see married. If the girl falls in love with the son immediately, it is unfortunately not the other way around. But when she sees him stealing money from her father while she is asleep in the armchair, she is determined to save him from dishonour.

Note: In this film, Alice Guy innovates and explores the use of depth of field to illustrate the simultaneity of several actions. Another moment of bravery is the nightmarish sequence that powerfully depicts her addiction to gambling through the superimposition of cards encircling the character.

The Girl in the Arm-Chair

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Freebox - VF - HD

A heavily pregnant woman has a series of irrepressible cravings while walking with her family.

Madame a des envies

Français

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Billy Quirk

Algie, a handsome boy from the town, asks for the hand of Harry Lions&#x27; daughter. He accepts on condition that Algie proves himself. Ready to do anything to win her sweetheart, our hero packs his bags and leaves for the mines of the West, far from the comfort of city life. He comes back metamorphosed...

Algie the Miner

Romaine Fielding

Vinnie Burns

Ed Brady

In a gold mining concession in New Mexico, two stories intertwine: the love triangle between Harry, Florence and Jake, and the attempted murder of Harry by Mexican gold miners employed and exploited by him.

Note: This western with its palpable dramatic tension is a fierce criticism of the daily xenophobia of the time.

Greater Love Hath no Man

Greater Love Hath No Man

Fraunie Fraunholz

Ruined by an unfortunate financial operation, a young man announces to his fianc&eacute;e that he can no longer marry her. She offers him all her savings to help him rebuild his life, but he refuses. To get him out of his predicament, she comes up with a subtle ploy.

Matrimony's Speed Limit 

Edgar Norton

Carlyle Blackwell

Doris Kenyon

William Morris

Millie, a young woman abused by her adoptive father, runs away and hides in an isolated house soon to be occupied by the famous novelist Ronald Roberts. She falls in love. But things are not going to be that simple...

The Ocean Waif

Ce programme r&eacute;unit 11 courts m&eacute;trages r&eacute;alis&eacute;s par Alice Guy :&nbsp;La F&eacute;e aux choux, Comment monsieur prend son bain, Le Matelas &eacute;pileptique, Les R&eacute;sultats du f&eacute;minisme, Madame a des envies,&nbsp;Une femme collante, Le Bonnet &agrave; poil, Une h&eacute;ro&icirc;ne de 4 ans,&nbsp;La Naissance, la vie et la mort du Christ, Sur les barricades et&nbsp;Alice Guy tourne une photosc&egrave;ne.

&nbsp;

Première femme cinéaste au monde, Alice Guy a marqué l’histoire du Cinéma. Véritable pionnière, elle débute avec La fée aux choux, dont la première version date de 1896, premier film fantastique de l'histoire du 7e art et première fiction Gaumont. Quelques années plus tard, elle réalise une série de films autour de la vie du Christ et donne naissance au péplum (elle en offrira un remake quelques années après avec La Naissance, la vie et la mort du Christ – 1906, son chef-d’œuvre). C’est elle qui fait rentrer Louis Feuillade chez Gaumont, qui deviendra l’un de ses plus grands auteurs (Fantômas, Les Vampires, Judex). En ayant l’idée de filmer un tournage, elle invente le concept de making of et nous laisse une trace inestimable de l’ambiance des tournages du début du siècle. Ses œuvres abordent aussi plus ou moins en filigrane la question de la place de la femme dans la société du début du XXème siècle, comme Les Résultats du féminisme, Une femme collante et Madame a des envies. Ce ne sont que quelques-uns des nombreux aspects de la très riche carrière de la légendaire Alice Guy, que nous vous proposons dans cette anthologie

« J’entendais, du matin au soir, parler de cinéma. Cependant, les films que l’on projetait n’étaient que des expériences de laboratoire : sorties d’usines, trains en marche, défilés de troupe. Il me semblait qu’on pouvait faire autre chose. M’armant un jour de courage, je demandai à monsieur Gaumont de m’autoriser à écrire et à faire jouer par mes camarades une ou deux saynètes. (…) La permission me fut accordée à condition que cela n’empiète pas sur mon travail de secrétaire. J’eus tôt fait de réunir quelques amis, de choisir mes costumes et d’écrire un semblant de scénario. A côté des ateliers de travaux photographiques, à Belleville, se trouvait un petit jardin, clos par un grand mur. C’est là que je mis en scène mon premier film, La fée aux choux. Je ne vous dirais pas que c’était une merveille ! cependant, si extraordinaire que cela puisse paraître aujourd’hui, ce fut un succès ; si bien que je fus autorisée à renouveler ma tentative. »

Extrait de Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968) la première femme cinéaste au monde de Victor Bachy, éditeur Institut Jean Vigo (1993)

Gaumont

Programme Alice Guy

In a society in which gender roles are switched, will men tolerate being unequal?

The Consequences of Feminism

FR - SD

Germaine Serand

Yvonne Serand

The first film directed by a female director, &quot;The Cabbage Fairy&quot; presents a brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Gently moving through the cabbages and using of lovely gestures, she takes one baby out of there, then makes more magic and delivers two more.

La Fée aux choux

Ferdinand Zecca

An uncharacteristic &quot;trick&quot; film from Alice Guy. The fellow prepares for his bath. And prepares. And prepares.

Comment monsieur prend son bain

Romeo Bosetti

Comedy is benefited by originality. In this Alice Guy short, an alcoholic is inadvertently sewn in to a mattress. With that unique premise, havoc ensues.

The Drunken Mattress

An upper class lady goes to the post office and takes her maid with her to help with the stamp affixing.

A Sticky Woman

A comedy about social convention. A maid allows a soldier into the kitchen triggering, if discovered, potentially embarrassing liaisons.

Le Bonnet à poil

A four-year-old saves the&nbsp;day.

A Four-Year-Old Heroine

The life of Jesus Christ in 25 scenes.

The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ

A tumultuous time in French history affects the life of one particular man, an innocent bystander swept up in the confusion around him.

L'Enfant de la barricade

Étienne Arnaud

A behind the scenes look at Alice Guy Blanche directing one of her films.

Alice Guy tourne une phonoscène

 Delphin

Renée Carl

Suzanne Grandais

Marthe Vinot

A manuscript is mysteriously delivered to a playhouse where it is eventually turned into a major hit with critics calling it a masterpiece. The only problem is that no one knows who wrote it. The actress of the play receives a call from the author and the two quickly becomes friends but the man won&#x27;t give any details about himself because he has a secret.

Le Nain

FR - SD 

René Navarre

Henri Jullien

Maurice Mathieu

A wife obsesses over the fact that a fortune teller revealed husband&#x27;s voyage to America is doomed, he is booked to sail on the Titanic.

La Hantise

Making an American Citizen by Alice Guy a movie to download, on VoD and legal streaming - LaCinetek

Making an American Citizen

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Other films

By the same director

Madame a des envies

Algie the Miner

Falling Leaves

From the same year

Algie the Miner

Falling Leaves

The Girl in the Arm-Chair

With the same cast

Blanche Cornwall

Falling Leaves

The Girl in the Arm-Chair