The Cabbage Fairy (1896)
aka La fee aux choux
Article 5631 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-16-2019
Directed by Alice Guy
Featuring Alice Guy, Germaine Serand, Yvonne Serand
Country: France
What it is: Not this easy in real life

A cabbage fairy plucks babies out of a cabbage patch.

If you’ve ever been asked by a child where babies come from, and you’re too uptight to tell them truth, you can show them this early silent short; however, if they never took you seriously after that, that’s your problem. Be aware that the movie I saw on YouTube may not be this movie at all; at least one of the user comments on IMDB points out that the movie is lost, and this is a remake from four years later. It also lays claim to being the first fiction movie (implying, of course, that the cabbage fairy is not real), which would mean that it beat out Melies’s LE MANOIR DU DIABLE. At any rate, watching it gave me something quick to review at a time when I’ve slowed down my reviewing routine quite a bit. And I do love covering these very early silents.