cbr15bingo History: Alice Guy was a woman who made history. And people did try to ban her (she talked about GASP birth control!) and if Texas or Florida got hold of this book?
You might think you know the film industry and/or know its history, but do you know about Alice Guy: First Lady of Film? While I do not claim to know anything about the history of film, I never have. Of course, I am not one for knowing who directors are nor really am I interested in knowing them, to be bluntly honest.
But when I picked up Jose-Louis Bocquet and Catel’s informative, fun, clever, historical, fascinating graphic novel, I was hooked. Who
was this woman? She was the youngest of five children (three sisters and the oldest a brother who would die at age 14), the only one born in France (her siblings were born in Chile where their father made and lost his fortune), raised by her grandmother until around age three, a young woman who would want a career before marriage and one ready for adventure. All during a time when women married, had children, and listened to their husbands. She was the first woman director who would take France and later, the United States, by storm. She would do things unheard of (one of her films talked of birth control, and another had all black cast). She was known for spending money to make money and willing to take risks. And this is just the surface of things. We follow her from a young woman to becoming a secretary (a man’s job) to becoming one terribly prolific director (another man’s job). She knew what she wanted from telling her actors to “be natural” to what subjects she would cover. And all the while not afraid to use the fact she was a woman to sell her product.
And the story does not just cover the life of Guy, but the historical elements of the eras she lived, and how companies were born and ended seemingly on whims. Plus, we see the scientific history of photography, film making and the equipment used. As a warning there is colonialism attitudes, racism, underaged sexual encounters/rape , sexism and some female nudity portrayed. Things reflect the attitudes of the early 20th century, but are not necessarily gratuitous, or for shock value alone. 
While the black and white images sometimes made details feel lost in the shuffle, they are interesting. Women’s history is there; we need to find it, and here it is! There are also tons of extras. I do wish we learned some information about her children and grandchildren within the story itself (one of the extras are a few pages on each of the important players of Guy’s life, or who would shape the world she found herself in, in a biographical section), but overall everything is well done. I have seen several reviews that gave this only a 3, I’m rounding mine up to a five because the art makes things a 4.5, I just can’t help be amazed. 
