dancing women: two films by alice guy
by
Douglas Messerli
Alice Guy(-Blaché) (director) Au bal de Flore (At the Floral Ball) / 1900
Alice Guy(-Blaché) (director) Le depart d’Arlequin et de Pierrette (Le Fredaines de Pierrette) (Pierrette’s Escapades) / 1900
These two short film clips from 1900 are possibly related, as one commentator, popegrutch writing for the fascinating Century Film Project, suggests they may represent an all-female dance troupe in Paris that was accepted at the time for its somewhat transgressive balletic actions.
In At the Floral Ball the scene
gets particularly “steamy” as the two women dance, one in a low-cut dress and
the other in 18th century male clothing (described in the credits as
Miss Lally and Miss Julyett of the Olympia). In this hand-tinted, 2-minute
clip, the woman in a long light-blue gown leaps forward into the arms of the
second woman in reddish-brown tights, later moving around her several times,
spinning and dipping in a manner that does not represent true balletic
positions. At several points, the woman in the blue gown reveals a great deal
of her naked leg and thigh.
The male-female kisses the other’s hand, the
woman in the blue dress retiring to a chair to fan herself as if overheated by
her lover’s attentions, he also fanning her with her/his coattails. The male
figure moves toward her, siting on the spindle of the chair as she/he kisses
her hand once more, following her/his smooches up her arm to her elbow and just
beyond before the screen goes black.
She returns to her bedroom preparations,
miming the actions until suddenly a new clown, another female, in green tights
with a yellow bicorne hat appears by her side, moving with her into a full
dance consisting of several pirouettes, spins, and short skips before the
colorful Pierrot awards her a final kiss on the lips.
Although Pierrot is generally a sad clown
as was the clip’s figure in white, this “Pierrette,” the female version of the
traditional figure, is clearly joyful, celebrating his love with his Columbine.
Perhaps the audiences of the days
recognized these all-female performances as far less shocking than if they had
been performed by a mixed gender cast. Certainly, it might have been shocking
to have the woman in At the Floral Ball reveal her full naked leg and
thigh to a male partner in this Edwardian-era piece.
Los Angeles, December 6, 2020
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog and World Cinema Review (December
2020).
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