Alice Guy's second or third (or, who knows, fourth or more) variation on the cabbage-patch folklore of human reproduction (akin to the stork one), whereby babies are born in a cabbage patch, varies from the 1896/1900 version(s) of "The Cabbage-Patch Fairy" (see my comments on La fée aux choux (1896) and La fée aux choux, ou la naissance des enfants (1900)) in being an early story film, whereas the other is of the cinema-of-attractions mode, a direct address of spectacle and returned gaze to the spectator in lieu of a narrative or fourth wall. "Midwife to the Upper Class" is also comprised of two shots instead of one. This development is consistent with the historical development of filmmaking standards from cinema as a novelty to the rise of narrative cinema, continuity editing and, soon thereafter, nickelodeons and movie culture. Guy's subsequent film to feature the cabbage patch, "Madame's Cravings" (1906) is even more mature. How appropriate that films mythologizing birth work rather well to track the birth and growth of Guy's own filmmaking and, by extension, developments in cinema overall.
The first shot features a windowed exterior, with the midwife inside, and the couple (a woman and Guy herself in Pierrot-type drag, which, especially now, is open to a queer reading) embracing outside. The midwife comes out from behind the window by, apparently, walking around the set, and the three play with a doll for a bit. The upper-class couple, then, are led by the midwife through the door. The next shot shows them entering the cabbage patch. The transition between the two shots either involves a hypothetical two doors or is a temporal replay, which was common back then. Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) contains a similar repeated action from a different perspective for the landing on the Moon. Another example, Edwin S. Porter's "Life of an American Fireman," which due to later re-editing was misbelieved by some to feature some of the earliest crosscutting in film history, contains a few and an especially long temporal replay. In the case of this film, two doors may be plausible, though, because the order of characters entering through the entryway in the first shot is different than those exiting in the second.
Regardless, the midwife, next, pulls some infants out from behind cabbages, for the buyers to examine. Even this early in the development of narrative cinema, there's potentially offensive racial representation, as the couple is disgusted by a black baby and reject another with a feather headdress (as opposed to the otherwise nude ones), both of them apparently undeveloped, as represented by dolls instead of living babies like the white ones laid out on a towel at the bottom of the frame. Eventually, the couple gets a newborn they like, Guy pays the midwife, the couple kiss and exit. Whether an analogy for adoption or fable on natural birth, the satire on class and wealth advantages in bringing children into the world is reflected in the cabbage patch. Absent in the original film(s), the erotic display of afore, where the fairy in low-cut costume moved dance-like and locked eyes with the spectator is replaced here by transactional narrative.
Besides the addition of a narrative to the cabbage patch, this version is interesting for the role of the midwife acting as a mediator to the development of the cabbage-patch plot--something of the surrogate filmmaker on screen as was the fairy in the 1896/1900 film(s). In this self-reflexive reading, the cabbages would be the cinematographic apparatus and the infants the films. The couple represent the spectator, us, being wrapped inside of the plot, whereas the fairy in the prior "The Cabbage-Patch Fairy" directly addressed us as outside the frame. Guy playing the masculine-gendered spouse in this one instead of the midwife rather ruins this metaphor, though. Anyways, see "Madame's Cravings" next to see how far Guy could take this attractive and narrative cabbage patch.
The first shot features a windowed exterior, with the midwife inside, and the couple (a woman and Guy herself in Pierrot-type drag, which, especially now, is open to a queer reading) embracing outside. The midwife comes out from behind the window by, apparently, walking around the set, and the three play with a doll for a bit. The upper-class couple, then, are led by the midwife through the door. The next shot shows them entering the cabbage patch. The transition between the two shots either involves a hypothetical two doors or is a temporal replay, which was common back then. Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) contains a similar repeated action from a different perspective for the landing on the Moon. Another example, Edwin S. Porter's "Life of an American Fireman," which due to later re-editing was misbelieved by some to feature some of the earliest crosscutting in film history, contains a few and an especially long temporal replay. In the case of this film, two doors may be plausible, though, because the order of characters entering through the entryway in the first shot is different than those exiting in the second.
Regardless, the midwife, next, pulls some infants out from behind cabbages, for the buyers to examine. Even this early in the development of narrative cinema, there's potentially offensive racial representation, as the couple is disgusted by a black baby and reject another with a feather headdress (as opposed to the otherwise nude ones), both of them apparently undeveloped, as represented by dolls instead of living babies like the white ones laid out on a towel at the bottom of the frame. Eventually, the couple gets a newborn they like, Guy pays the midwife, the couple kiss and exit. Whether an analogy for adoption or fable on natural birth, the satire on class and wealth advantages in bringing children into the world is reflected in the cabbage patch. Absent in the original film(s), the erotic display of afore, where the fairy in low-cut costume moved dance-like and locked eyes with the spectator is replaced here by transactional narrative.
Besides the addition of a narrative to the cabbage patch, this version is interesting for the role of the midwife acting as a mediator to the development of the cabbage-patch plot--something of the surrogate filmmaker on screen as was the fairy in the 1896/1900 film(s). In this self-reflexive reading, the cabbages would be the cinematographic apparatus and the infants the films. The couple represent the spectator, us, being wrapped inside of the plot, whereas the fairy in the prior "The Cabbage-Patch Fairy" directly addressed us as outside the frame. Guy playing the masculine-gendered spouse in this one instead of the midwife rather ruins this metaphor, though. Anyways, see "Madame's Cravings" next to see how far Guy could take this attractive and narrative cabbage patch.