Photo © Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé

The phonograph or the cinematograph? All year long, the two rival activities vied for supremacy, but not until 1906 would the cinema definitively overtake its predecessor. The outcome was thanks to its international sales, particularly in the “strategic square” of New York, London, Moscow and Berlin. Henri Bousquet, in his preface to the Pathé Catalogue, volume 1896-1906, remarked on “the enormous growth of cinematograph entrepreneurs” in 1905 and, in France, “a myriad of itinerant operations, large and small”. Pathé understood that “the constant development of new vues” was the secret to its dominance over the competition. The studio on Rue du Bois in Vincennes, expanded by two floors, was reopened that March. It was able to meet public demand, unveiling 180 new films, directed mainly by Ferdinand Zecca, Gaston Velle, Lucien Nonguet and Camille Legrand. The year 1905 also heralded the debuts of Albert Capellani and Max Linder. Trick films, comedy sketches and outdoor scenes prevailed, yet the year of La Poule aux œufs d’or also produced great dramas depicting the weak against the strong. In Au bagne, prisoners attempt to escape their brutal guards, while in Au pays noir miners are buried by their harrowing worksite… a premonition of catastrophe to come? In March 1906, the Courrières mine disaster would claim nearly 1,100 lives. In addiction to film production, the efforts of two other departments were focused on industry, with the construction of the Joinville-le-Pont factory (dedicated to making film prints), and the establishment of an atelier for stencil colouring – an activity previously outsourced to Parisian workshops – which was transitioning from a hand-crafted process to an industrial one. The first female factory workers were set up in a corner of the Vincennes studio. By the end of the year, they were well-versed in stencil-cutting. Soon after, Pathé decided to build an independent workshop.

Stéphanie Salmon