Bérénice Bejo becomes Alice Guy-Blaché, pioneer of the 7th art
The first official images revealed by HBO Max, which tease this biopic on a major but long forgotten figure in the history of cinema.
She is one of the great pioneers of cinema, but her name still remains largely unknown to the general public.
With Alice, HBO Max and France Télévisions want to put Alice Guy-Blaché at the heart of the history of the 7th art. And the first official photos, which today allow us to discover Bérénice Bejo in the role of the one who was the first fiction director in the history of cinema, notably with La Fée aux choux in 1896.
The photo below shows the actress in costume, her eye behind a… vintage camera. The other images already give an overview of this historic fresco, toured between France, Belgium, the Camargue and Canada.
“From Paris to New York, Alice traces the destiny of a woman with multiple lives: artist, feminist, wife, mother, daring entrepreneur. Her thwarted loves, her professional struggles and her quest for recognition cross her story where the language of cinema is invented,” details the official synopsis.
Born in 1873, Alice Guy-Blaché worked alongside Léon Gaumont before launching into directing herself. She then left for the United States, where she founded her own production company and pursued a particularly prolific career, at a time when the film industry was still being built.
To embody the different figures who have accompanied her journey, Bérénice Bejo will notably opposite Thibaut Evrard, who plays Léon Gaumont, Oscar Lesage in the role of Herbert Blaché, her husband and professional partner, Irène Jacob as Marie, Alice’s mother, and Yannick Choirat as Charles Pathé, rival and antagonist. Marc Barbé, Steve Driesen, Sophie Nélisse, François Arnaud and Vincent Leclerc complete the cast.
The series is co-directed by Virginie Verrier and Guillaume Lonergan, with scripts by Tim Loane, Claire Lemaréchal and André Gulluni. It will have 6 episodes of 45 minutes.
Alice will be available by the end of the year on HBO Max then on France Télévisions in 2027.
