The Pathé exhibition dedicated to the history of cinema opens the Angoulême film festival

It’s a great opportunity to celebrate 125 years of Pathé. A free exhibition dedicated to the emblematic production house opens the 15th edition of the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, scheduled from August 23 to 28.

On the program of this exhibition, excerpts from the greatest films in shambles, original storyboards, an impressive collection of cameras but also many accessories. We find for example the costume of Burt Lancaster in the film Cheetah by Luchino Visconti, the bicycle used by Dany Boon in Welcome to the Ch’tis or even the crayfish buoy of dear Patrick Chirac in Camping, which offer the public a behind-the-scenes look at cinema.

This immersive exhibition even allows visitors to have fun recreating their own montage thanks to a playful experience: “From a scene from time of secretsyou can choose different planes and recreate your own montage”, explains Stéphanie Salmon, director of historical collections at the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation.

Pathé, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, is one of the largest French distributors. Before the First World War, it was the world leader in cinema and held half of the American market. Then talkies arrived and changed the game.

“Pathé has made films with colossal budgets”, adds Dominique Besnehard, behind this exhibition and also one of the founders of the Angoulême film festival. Pathé films are often blockbuster films, like The beauty and the Beast in 2014 or more recently Notre Dame is burning by Jean-Jacques Annaud, released on screens in 2022.

This new exhibition is to be discovered until September 3 in Angoulême at the Espace Franquin.