La fée aux choux

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.

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.

Well, this one is quite a bore - nothing more to see than a lady dressed as fairy picking up babies out of large fake cabbages.

2/10

...Wikipedia states. I'll go along with that. In 1896, films were relatively new--and, the Lumiere Bros were still turning out actuality shorts. Apparently, this little vignette is based on the concept that baby boys come from cabbages (and baby girls from roses). There is no real story and all you see is a fairy of sorts pulling babies out of cabbages. At a minute long you can't expect much more.

I will admit I am not too familiar with director Alice Guy. This is the only film I've seen by her (except for "Making an American Citizen" from 1912). Reportedly, this is Guy's first film. About that reviewer who said it's all about child cruelty--forget that! Yes, she wasn't exactly gentle to these babies, but I doubt they were hurt all that bad, and it feels harmless enough to me at least. At least that aforementioned reviewer did inform me that the 1896 original is lost and the 1900 remake survives. Watch it anyway--it's available on YouTube. And while you won't be impressed, you will have to give it to Guy--these sets and costumes are ahead of their time.

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.