• Les vampires, Episode 2: The Ring That Kills

  • Cabbage Fairy

  • The Glue



Alice Guy-Blaché & Louis Feuillade: Silent Cinema Pioneers



  • Introduction
    Anne Nesbet

    Anne Nesbet is a Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Film & Media at UC Berkeley.

  • Judith Rosenberg
    On Piano
    Judith Rosenberg

In the hundreds of films of her career, Alice Guy-Blaché experimented with camera techniques, location shooting, film chemistry, and hand-tinted images. Foreshadowing feminism, her female characters were strong and intelligent, often cast as professional women. After a few years, Solax Films grew to be the largest studio in the United States, but the boom period was not long-lived. Around the time of World War I, the film industry in the United States changed. Conglomerates formed and soon squeezed independent studios such as Solax Films out of existence. When Guy-Blaché left Gaumont Studios, she handed off direction of the studio to Louis Feuillade, who would direct landmark serial crime films, including Les vampires.

Films in this Screening

Cabbage Fairy
(La fée aux choux)

Alice Guy-Blaché, France, 1901

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 1 mins
source
  • Kino Lorber

The Glue
(La glu)

Alice Guy-Blaché, France, 1907

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 5 mins
source
  • Kino Lorber

Tramp Strategy

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1911

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • Silent
  • 12 mins
  • 18fps
source
  • UCLA Film & Television Archive

Falling Leaves

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1912

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 12 mins
source
  • Kino Lorber
permission
  • Women Film Pioneers Project

When Marian Was Little
(When Marian Was Married)

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1911

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • Silent
  • 14 mins
  • 18fps
source
  • Library of Congress
permission
  • John E. Allen Collection

The New Love and the Old
(Old Love and the New)

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1912

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • Silent
  • 5 mins
  • 18fps
source
  • Library of Congress
permission
  • John E. Allen Collection

The Roads That Lead Home

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1912

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • Silent
  • 15 mins
  • 18fps
source
  • Library of Congress
permission
  • John E. Allen Collection

Napoleon

Alice Guy-Blaché, United States, 1913

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • Silent
  • 10 mins
  • 18fps
source
  • Library of Congress
permission
  • John E. Allen Collection

Les vampires, Episode 1: The Severed Head
(La tête coupée)

Louis Feuillade, France, 1915

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • French intertitles
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 33 mins
source
  • Gaumont

Les vampires, Episode 2: The Ring That Kills
(La bague qui tue)

Louis Feuillade, France, 1915

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • French intertitles
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • Silent
  • 15 mins
source
  • Gaumont

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