La fée aux choux

The first female director debuts with smiling child abuse. Yay. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but those babies don't look very happy when Alice Guy dumps them on the ground. The first one specifically looks like she's suffering when she falls on her side and flails her arms, but hey, this was made in the 1900s, so a little cruelty is acceptable, right? After all, these kids will have to survive two world wars, so they better get used to how hard life (and the floor) can be! By the way, I love how IMDb commemorates Alice Guy in the video "A salute to female directors" and opens with scenes from "La fée aux choux"! I guess they weren't so bothered by babies being thrown on the ground either. Anyway, respect to female directors, respect to women, even if they're dragging newborns out of the ground by their arms and tossing them onto the ground, smiling like maniacs! That's entertainment, baby! Better get used to it!

Let's talk about Alice Guy. She started out as a secretary at Gaumont and was soon put in charge of film production, yet for some reason, although her IMDb page credits her first movie as director as LES DEMOLISSEURS, (now apparently lost), the page for this movie appears later in production, has a release date of 1900 and the IMDb claims it is the first movie directed by a woman. It's also written by her. It also credits her as one of three actresses appearing in the movie, although there is only one.

It's a minute and a half of a woman in fancy dress dancing around a cabbage field, occasionally plucking a baby out. Some modern feminist writers claim that early women in the film business were a lot like modern feminists. I think it better to actually look at the works of early movies, as many of them as possible, and then make up your mind. This looks silly and charming and not the least feminist to me. Clearly someone -- or several people -- have been talking about Mlle. Guy and this movie without bothering to look at anything pertinent.

Ms. Guy, an enchanting actor, makes the connection between humanity and nature. Mirthful and succinct. -David Olive, Toronto

This strange but cute little film was apparently the first one ever directed by a woman. Alice Guy (later Alice Guy Blaché) made what is in some ways very indicative of the 1890s--a film only about a minute long and with an underdeveloped plot. However, the set is actually very nice for the time as is the woman's costume. Compared to the Lumiere Brothers' films of the day, this one is much more interesting and isn't about mundane everyday activities (such as folks leaving work or babies eating). It consists of a woman(Guy herself) who you assume is some sort of fairy. She's in the cabbage patch pulling out babies from the plants. It's certainly NOT the best sexual health and reproduction lesson I've seen and is kind of goofy...but cute at the same time.

One reviewer went on and on about how abusive the film was towards these poor naked babies...I just thought it was kind of cute and nothing more. But, I must admit that the fairy was awfully rough with the babies! This is an interesting review to read.

By the way, I am not giving this one a numerical score and I often don't with the earliest films because they are so short and simple that they defy scoring.

Considered the first film made by a female director and the first feature of fiction in cinema, "The Cabbage Fairy" (La fée aux choux) is a charming piece of film history. Based on a European fairy tale, the film is a minute-sized glimpse at the directress Alice Guy-Blaché playing a fairy who plucks babies out of cabbages while employing theatrical gestures with a winning smile in every move. Pioneering and still quite entertaining, the film is a fascinating view on the origins of film and the distant past.