La Femme Collante

Music for the short film by Alice Guy-Blaché / Arte tv

Alice Guy-Blaché (1873 – 1968) was the first female filmmaker: she invented nothing less than the feature film, and yet she was long forgotten. She made over 1000 films with her production company ‘Solax’, inventing slapstick and special effects. She had women riding and shooting, men ironing and sewing. At the end of the 19th century, she began her film work at the same time as Georges Meliès and the Lumière brothers. In contrast to these ‘pioneers’, however, she is still barely known today, even among experts. La femme collante (1906) thematises the unequal social and gender-specific power relations in Alice Guy-Blaché’s typical humorous-cabaret language.

The music is recorded by Ensemble Garage and published as part of a film portrait with various short films by Guy-Blaché on Arte.tv 2023, as well as part of a concert programme by the ensemble.