PREVIEW OF Alice Guy Blaché:Cinema Pioneer
WITH LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY DONALD SOSIN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
On November 6, 2009 the Whitney held a breakfast, opening ceremony and preview of selected films from the program Alice Guy Blaché:Cinema Pioneer, which will run until the end of January 2010.
To see a program of film screenings during the exhibit (programs change weekly) go here.
The program booklet for the show can be downloaded at the end of this message.
Joan Simon at opening
Films from the Swedish Film Institute: preserved byt he Swedish Film Institute. Films from the Library of Congress: preserved by the Library of Congress.
Donald Sosin at the piano
Composer/pianist donals Sosin has been enthrlling audiences in the U.S. and Europe with his silent film music for over thirty-five years. He appears regularly at major film festivals and is the resident pianist for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, BAM, and the Museum of the Moving Image; his scores have been heard on Turner Classic Movies and on over three dozen DVD releases on the Criterion, Kino, and Milestone labels. He las performed at the Whitney Museum for Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde 1893-1941 (2001).
Sosin, Charles Musser, Jane Gaines
All films are silent unless otherwise indicated. The screenings include films projected in a number of formats, including Beta-SP video, high-definition digital video (Blu-ray), and 35mm film.
La Fée aux choux
[The Cabbage Fairy], 1900 [1896?]
(Gaumont). Archival Film Collections of the
Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm
La Concierge
[The Concierge], 1900 (Gaumont). Archival
Film Collections of the Swedish Film
Institute, Stockholm
Chez le photographe
[At the Photographer’s], 1900 (Gaumont).
Archival Film Collections of the Swedish
Film Institute, Stockholm
Au bal de Flore
[At the Bal de Flore], 1900 (Gaumont).
Performed by Mlles Lally and Julyett de
l’Olympia. Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona
Deirdre Brennan of Fort Lee Film Comission and Gary Donatelli of the DGA
La Femme collante [The Sticky Woman], 1906 (Gaumont). Restored by Archives Françaises du Film du CNC, Bois d’Arcy, France
Les Résultats du féminisme [The Results of Feminism], 1906 (Gaumont). Safety print made by the Archives Françaises du Film du CNC from an original Gaumont nitrate negative
Alice Guy tourne une phonoscène [Alice Guy directs a synchronized sound film], 1905 (Gaumont). Gaumont Pathé Archives, Paris
Questions indiscrètes
[Indiscreet Questions], 1905 (Gaumont;
phonoscène). Performed by Félix Mayol.
Gaumont Pathé Archives, Paris
Falling Leaves
1912 (Solax). Library of Congress,
Washington, DC
Alice Guy Blaché Film Score Project: A Whitney Live commission.
Musical score composed by Tamar Muskal and performed for the recording by Erin Keefe (violin), Pedja Muzijevic (pinao), and Wilhelmina Smith (cello), 2009.
Nancy O'Malley and Tom Meyers of the Fort Lee Film Commission
Alice Guy Blaché: Cinema Pioneer is sponsored,
in part, by American Express
Generous support is provided by Jessica E. Smith
and Kevin R. Brine.
Significant support is provided by the
Elizabeth A. Sackler Museum Educational Trust,
the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Foundation,
and an anonymous foundation donor.
Tamar Muskal, Missy Mazzoli and Du Yun, composers for Alice Guy films
Special support is provided by the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Special thanks for the generous in-kind
contributions from Gaumont, Paris, where
in its earliest years Alice Guy Blaché began her career
as a director, and for the valuable assistance of
Gaumont Pathé Archives and Musée Gaumont.
With much appreciation to the Library of
Congress for their support of this project and
to its Packard Campus for Audio-Visual
Conservation, Culpeper, Virginia, the largest
repository of Alice Guy Blaché’s American films.
Susanne Reichling, Producer for Arte, and Cinematographer Daniele Salm
With thanks to Dayton Digital Filmworks for their restoration of Alice Guy Blaché
films for this exhibition, and their generous gift of the restoration of Falling Leaves.
With thanks to the Women’s Film Preservation
Fund of New York Women in Film and
Television for support of the restoration
of Mixed Pets.
Yamaha GranTouch Digital Grand Piano
provided courtesy of YAMAHA.
Crowd waiting for Whitney Museum to open on November 6, 2009