Germaine Dulac

French filmmaker, critic, and theorist, born 1882 in Amiens. One of the first women to direct narrative films, she moved from journalism into cinema and became a leading figure of French impressionist and avant-garde filmmaking. Her films include The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923), a landmark of feminist cinema, and The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928), often cited as the first surrealist film. In the sound era she turned to newsreel production and film theory. She died in 1942.