La Fée aux choux

(1896)

   Film. La Fée aux choux is arguably the first narrative fiction film ever made. While it has been difficult to put a precise date to the film, many film historians now believe it was made in early 1896, shortly before Georges Méliès, who was previously attributed with making the first narrative fiction film, released his first work. Alice Guy, the film's director, was, at the time she made the film, the secretary to Léon Gaumont and Gaumont et cie was a company that sold photographic equipment. Guy reportedly asked Gaumont's permission to make one or two story films with the company's newly acquired moving picture camera, and La Fée aux choux was the first product.

   The film is a mere sixty seconds long. It recounts a story, based in folklore, of a woman who gives birth in a cabbage patch. Filmed in continuous shot with a static camera, the film is significant less for its technical innovation than for its use of film as a narrative form. Originally intended to be used as a publicity film to advertise camera equipment, the film prompted Gaumont to move in the direction of film production and to transform itself into Gaumont Studios. Guy went on to become head of production at the studio for a number of years, and she is believed to have made several hundred subsequent films.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins