ALICE GUY-BLACHE FILMS
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Here’s precisely what makes TCM such a treasure. It’s not only devoting prime time to a documentary about an important yet largely forgotten female filmmaker of the silent era, but follows that inspiring documentary with a sampling of several of Alice Guy-Blache’s short films. The perfect pairing – and believe me, after you watch Be Natural, you’ll be thrilled by the opportunity to watch some of her films intact – begins at 10 p.m. ET with 1912’s Falling Leaves, based on a story by O. Henry. (It’s about a woman trying to save her ill sister from dying of the then-prevalent plague, so don’t settle in expecting total escapism.) After that, a mere 15 minutes later, comes 1916’s The Ocean Waif, about an abused woman in love with a famous writer. And after that, at 11 p.m. ET, comes 1906’s ambitious The Birth, The Life, and The Death of Christ (pictured) – a silent movie made a full 10 years before D.W. Griffith covered some of the same ground in his 1916 epic, Intolerance.