One of the most celebrated of Alice Guy's Solax films, "Falling Leaves" is a remarkably moving and sweet short, based as it is in a child's naiveté in trying to save her older sister from dying from tuberculosis. The business of her tying falling leaves back to tree branches, to prevent the prediction she overhears from a doctor that her sister will be dead when the last leaf falls, also reminds me of another early film to feature moving foliage and a character called "baby," as the child here is nicknamed. That film, the Lumière brothers' "Le Repas de Bébé" (1895) is usually remarked upon for its windswept background as it is for being a prototypical home movie. Moving pictures in two senses of the words. "Falling Leaves" adds a third, metaphorical sense in its melodramatic appeal. Moreover, the baby here attempts to arrest that movement, the passage of space and time. Odd thing is, she succeeds. Although Hollywood wasn't the center of the filmmaking world yet, evidently Hollywood endings were already becoming a thing.
I've seen this one a couple times before, but especially reviewed it again now because it's also an early film to deal with medical care and a contagious disease. Besides D.W. Griffith's "A Country Doctor" (1909), I'm not aware of much earlier than this. Reviewing both back to back, a comparison is in some ways telling. Both are cleverly framed: Griffith's film cinematographically by bucolic panning shots and Guy's plot, reportedly, follows that of a popular song of the day, "The Consumptive Girl or Baby's Secret." Appropriately, then, the girl's illness in the film is announced by her piano playing being interrupted by a coughing fit. Both films feature a good amount of crosscutting, too. While Griffith's is more for excitement, Guy employs it for a bifurcated narrative that in the end will combine. Technically, there's also some nice tinting effects, including for day-for-night shooting, in the surviving prints of this one, and at least one shot features strong low-key lighting. We still get the tableau style of title cards announcing proceeding action, but the simplicity of the story and the complicating of the plot with the parallel narratives helps to overcome that.
Perhaps, most remarkable, however, is that Guy's film focuses on the domestic sphere for the affect of illness, as opposed to the professional priority of Griffith's gaze on the actions of the doctor. Guy wasn't only the first female filmmaker; she was a filmmaker who provided an entirely unique perspective--all the more valuable as it was amid a male-dominated profession. Although one of the most effective, "Falling Leaves" is hardly her only film to privilege the perspectives of women and children. Such a viewpoint entirely alters the trajectory of such a picture; while Griffith's is oriented towards action, Guy's sympathies are with the family's coping. The family's doctor is a minor character, and the other one is, too, for most of the scenes. Nature, though, remains a prominent feature in both, and the pretty landscapes are tied with movement as well as serving as stark contrast to the heinous diseases inside.
