Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Dec 7, 2018

1h 43m

★ 7.2

She saw the future through the camera lens

Overview

The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

PIC Agency

Artemis Rising

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché Trailers

Cast

Self - Narrator (voice)

Jodie Foster

Self

Richard Abel

Self

Marc Abraham

Self

Stephanie Allain

Self

Gillian Armstrong

Self

John Bailey

Self

Cari Beauchamp

Self

Lake Bell

Self

Peter Billingsley

Self

James Bobin

Self

Serge Bromberg

Self

Kevin Brownlow

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.

6.8

Anna and the King

Dec 16, 1999

The story of the romance between the King of Siam (now Thailand) and the widowed British school teacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860s. Anna teaches the children and becomes romanced by the King. She convinces him that a man can be loved by just one woman.

0.0

People, Years, Life

Jan 1, 1990

Using images shot in Russia and Armenia from World War I to the 1930s and retrieved from a Soviet film archive, Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi constructed a meditative film about the status of Armenians as a people without a state. Inspired by the diary of Gianikian’s father, People, Years, Life uses rare footage depicting the region’s major historic events: the end of Tsarist Russia, violence in the Caucasus during World War I, the 1918 Armenian exodus from Azerbaijan. Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi’s treatment of the material manipulates the speed of the images, adds color and music, and magnifies various parts of the image, so that the movement of bodies across the frame begins to carry the weight of exile, mourning, dispossession.

5.7

Balkan Inventory

Nov 10, 2000

Comprised of images shot by amateur photographers and German soldiers in the Balkans from the twenties through the forties, BALKAN INVENTORY was begun by Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi in response to the tragedy unfolding in the former Yugoslavia.

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5.0

Ghiro ghiro tondo

Nov 24, 2007

Inspired by their beloved Dolomite area in Northeast Italy, a battle theater in World Wars I and II, Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi continue to explore issues of war and peace in their most recent production. The film uses shots of ordinary toys found in the area, many missing limbs and other pieces, to represent, in both direct and oblique ways, the historical period between Fascism, Nazism, and the postwar era.

0.0

Criminal Animals

Jan 1, 1994

In this filmic comment on Fascist ideology - which uses footage from the recently discovered archives of Luca Comerio - invisible hands push captive animals to fight among themselves.

6.7

Full Metal Village

Apr 19, 2007

The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.

8.0

The Elephant Man

Oct 9, 1980

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

7.6

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

May 23, 2007

The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.

5.6

How to Cook Your Life

May 10, 2007

A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.

7.7

A Million Miles Away

Sep 8, 2023

The life of engineer and former NASA astronaut José M. Hernández, the first migrant farmworker to go to space.

0.0

The Loose Woman

Jan 1, 1961

Khrystia, a peasant woman from a provincial village, decided to leave for the city in search of a better life. But, having not found there either a better life or happiness, she perishes ...

7.3

Catherine Deneuve, in the eye of the camera

Oct 22, 2023

She worked with the world’s greatest actors and directors: Buñuel, Mastroianni, Lellouche, Depardieu... The film guides us throughout her career with the filmmakers with whom she invented herself not to be a “cold blonde actress”, thanks to great interviews of many artists who crossed her path.

7.2

How Good to See You Alive

Oct 19, 1989

Four years after a military coup overthrew the Brazilian government in 1964, all civil rights were suspended and torture became a systematic practice. Using a mix of fiction and documentary this extraordinary film is a searing record of personal memory, political repression and the will to survive. Interviews with eight women who were political prisoners during the military dictatorship are framed by the fantasies and imaginings of an anonymous character, portrayed by actress Irene Ravache.

6.3

Madame Bovary

Mar 3, 1991

Bored with the limited and tedious nature of provincial life in 19th-century France, the fierce and sensual Emma Bovary finds herself in calamitous debt and pursues scandalous sexual liaisons with absolute abandon. However, when her volatile lifestyle catches up to her, the lives of everyone around her are endangered.

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0.0

Hviezdy na zemi

Jun 1, 1974

No overview available.

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2.5

Diary of a Political Tourist

Oct 11, 2004

Following the 2002 HBO documentary "Journeys with George," Pelosi's irreverent account of George W. Bush on the campaign trail, she set out on the road again with a handful of distinguished men competing to see who could eat the most pies, raise the most money and get the most votes to become the Democratic Party nominee.

7.3

Gangs of New York

Dec 14, 2002

In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.

7.7

The 'Frankenstein' Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster

Nov 1, 2002

The history of Frankenstein's journey from novel to stage to screen to icon.

8.0

Barry Lyndon

Dec 18, 1975

An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.