When Women Wrote Hollywood – 7 in a series – La Fee aux Choux | The Cabbage Fairy – Alice Guy Blaché (1896)

To highlight the wonderful yet largely forgotten work of a collection of female screenwriters from the early years of Hollywood (and as a companion to the book, When Women Wrote Hollywood) we will be posting quick bits about the many films they wrote along with links to further information and clips from their works which are still accessible online. Take a few moments once or twice a week to become familiar with their names and their stories. I think you’ll be surprised at how much bold material these writers tackled at the birth of this new medium. — Rosanne Welch

When Women Wrote Hollywood – 7 in a series – La Fee aux Choux | The Cabbage Fairy – Alice Guy Blaché (1896)

When Women Wrote Hollywood - 7 in a series - La Fee aux Choux | The Cabbage Fairy – Alice Guy Blaché

La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) is one of the earliest narrative fiction films ever made. It was probably made before the first Méliès fiction film, but after the Lumière brothers’ L’Arroseur Arrosé. The confusion stems from the uncertainty in the dating of these three films. Many film historians have accepted that La Fée aux Choux was made in April 1896, just a month or two before Méliès made his first fiction film. L’Arroseur arrosé (generally considered the earliest fiction film) was screened in December 1895.

La Fée aux Choux is sixty seconds long, possibly making it the earliest known film with a running time of at least one minute.

The film is based on an old and popular French (and actually, European) fairy tale. According to it, baby boys are born in cabbages, and baby girls are born in roses.

Alice Guy-Blaché, the director of La Fée aux Choux, is one of the early cinema’s most important figures, and had an extensive career as a director, producer and studio owner, working in both France and the United States. In a remake called Sage-femme de première classe (Midwife to the Upper Classes) from 1902, Guy Blaché appears, dressed as a man. — Wikipedia

Watch La Fee aux Choux | The Cabbage Fairy

  

More about Alice Guy Blaché

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Related posts:

  1. A History of Screenwriting – 1 in a series – The Cabbage Fairy (La Fée aux Choux)
  2. When Women Wrote Hollywood – 6 in a series – Alice Guy Blaché
  3. A History of Screenwriting – 3 in a series – Making An American Citizen (1912) – Alice Guy Blaché
  4. When Women Wrote Hollywood – 4 in a series – Jeanie MacPherson
  5. When Women Wrote Hollywood – 5 in a series – Anita Loos

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