FALLING LEAVES (1912) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Alice Guy

Written by - (uncredited)

Starring - Mace Greenleaf, Blanche Cornwall, Marion Swayne, Magda Foy, Darwinn Karr

"ALIVE GUY is one of the first great female filmmakers of all time, and FALLING LEAVES is perhaps the best of all her surviving films. 

A little girl shaken by her sister's terminal illness overhears a doctor figurately tell her mother that she will be dead by the times all the leaves will have fallen. It being autumn, the little girl takes the words of the doctor literally and decides to defy the laws of nature by glueing the leaves the the trees, so that they will not fall. 

In line with other melodramas of the time, the film's storyline may at first feel a little naive, but there is honesty behind the simple narrative, very much provided by the truthful approach of the use of viewpoint in the film, which is dictated by the little girl. As such, the theme of the girl's innocence dominates the emotions in the film and makes the fairytale like concept very rewarding. 

FALLING LEAVES has survived to the point where, despite its understandable theatrical set up, one can admire a skilfully timed unravelling of events, that make it very enjoyable, while its rewarding resolution makes even its most implausible aspects believable for the most parsimonious of viewers."

Drama, USA