Le jardin oublié: La vie et l'oeuvre d'Alice Guy-Blaché

Neglected for a century, the aged woman's cinema treasures, like THE LOST GARDEN in a fairy tale, await rediscovery by a new generation.

This poignant & thoughtful documentary introduces the viewer to Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968), finally being acknowledged as the world's first - and for many years, only - female film director. Through the narration of her granddaughter, Adrienne Blaché-Channing, the viewer is introduced to a charming old lady with a remarkable past.

Present at the very birth of the cinema in Europe, Guy-Blaché, through a series of fortunate circumstances, went on to direct hundreds of two-reelers in France & America from 1896 to 1920. Long before talkies arrived in 1927, she was pioneering the synchronization of motion pictures & sound. Today, tragically, she is virtually forgotten.

Artistic flair is used in seemingly integrating interviewees directly into the ancient films. Using tantalizing selections from her surviving films - and a TV interview she granted before her death - the documentary gives a very good summary of Guy-Blaché's importance to the history of the moving picture.