Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Catrinel Marlon and Vlad Ivanov in THE WHISTLERS

More movies to watch at home: I’ve amped up my streaming recommendations as we shelter in place. And we start with a new film, The Whistlers.

ON VIDEO

In the absorbing crime thriller The Whistlers, a shady cop and a mysterious woman are walking a tightrope of treachery. The Whistlers, was a hit at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but COVID-19 impaired its 2020 theatrical release in the US. You can stream it from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

My tribute to the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which would have been underway but for COVID-19, is Rojo. Set just before Argentina’s bloody coup in the 1970s, this moody, atmospheric film works as a slow-burn thriller. Rojo made my list of 10 Overlooked Movies of 2019. Stream it from Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache is a biodoc of a female cinema pioneer – one of the first directors, producers and studio heads – in both France and the US. You don’t know the whole story of the beginnings of cinema if you don’t know about Alice Guy. It’s currently free on WATCH TCM and can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play. You can watch Guy’s comic 1906 critique of male behavior, The Consequences of Feminism, on my blog post.

Evelyn Keyes in THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK

And is it too soon for Pandemic Noir? My post highlights Panic in the Streets and The Killer that Stalked New York. The Killer That Stalked New York has played on Turner Classic Movies; it’s not currently available to stream, but the DVD is available to purchase. The better movie, Panic in the Streets, plays frequently on Turner Classic Movies and can be streamed from iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Other recent streaming recommendations:

ON TV

On April 11 and 12, Turner Classic Movies brings us Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, another film noir from the great Fritz Lang. Seeking to discredit capital punishment, a novelist (Dana Andrews) gets himself charged with and CONVICTED of a murder – but then the evidence of his innocence suddenly disappears! Crackerjack (and deeply noir) surprise ending. Film noir historian Eddie Muller will introduce the film.

Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine in BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT

REMEMBRANCE

Character actor Allen Garfield contributed to many fine films, especially in the 1970s heyday of American auteurs, including The Candidate, The Brink’s Job, Nashville and The Stunt Man. My favorite Garfield performance was as the sleazy Bernie in the 1974 masterpiece The Conversation.

Allen Garfield in THE CONVERSATION

BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE: every cinephile should know this

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The documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache pulls us out of ignorance about one of the most important pioneers of cinema. Alice Guy was one of the first movie directors, one of the first producers and one of the first studio heads. She was one of the inventors of movie comedy, use of color, special effects and a host of other aspects of filmmaking that we take for granted today. She worked in all three centers of early filmmaking – Paris, Fort Lee, New Jersey and Hollywood. And she was a woman.

Alice Guy had been almost erased from history precisely because – and only because – she was a woman. But if we don’t know about Alice Guy, we are as ignorant as if we didn’t know about the Lumieres and D.W. Griffith. This is essential movie history.

Fortunately, more and more of her films are being rediscovered – found, properly credited and preserved. At the bottom of this post, you can watch one of her films, The Consequences of Feminism. I didn’t even know that the word “feminism” was extant 114 years ago, but the film still has #MeToo topicality. It’s a withering parody of gender roles and male entitlement. In the film, men and women have taken each others’ conventional gender roles. Men perform the thankless household drudgery while the women smoke, drink and play pool. Throughout, the women are outrageously sexually harassing the men, kind of like Mad Men in reverse. Of course, the men finally rebel at all the mistreatment.

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache is currently free on WATCH TCM and can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

Here’s the entire seven minute film from 1906: The Consequences of Feminism: