A review by pscamp01
Alice Guy: First Lady of Film by José-Louis Bocquet

5.0

Alice Guy is often remembered as the first female movie director, but that description rather short changes her accomplishments. She was actually one of the first major innovators of moving images, changing it from a mere recorder of moving images to an actual art form. While she is not completely forgotten (for instance, my local movie theater has a mural of her on one of its walls), she is still little remembered. Hopefully, this exquisite graphic novel will help change that. More than just a story of her life and accomplishments, it is also a fascinating look at the early movie business in France, with all of its rivalries and technological advances. The art in the book is fantastic and the writing is clever and clear (although the dialog does get bogged down in exposition occasionally). In the back of the book there is a Guy filmography and mini-biographies of characters in the book, many of whom are equally obscure as Guy (in America anyway.) These two bonuses ought to make the book a welcome addition to academic libraries at any university with a film studies program.