Speaking at the Lumière Festival's Classic Film Market, Jérôme Seydoux and Sophie Seydoux expressed their confidence in the resilience of cinema, predicted streamers would increasingly release films theatrically and stressed the importance of educating kids about cinema Sofia Coppola’s cult classic “Marie Antoinette” and three works by Louis Daquin, a champion of the Communist Resistance during the German occupation, are among the latest restored works from French studio Pathé. The company, whose owners Jérôme Seydoux and Sophie Seydoux are being honored at the Lumière Film Festival’s International Classic Film Market (MIFC) in Lyon, is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Fondation. A bastion of film preservation and the continued transmission of heritage works, Pathé has also been a strong supporter of the Lumière Festival since its establishment in 2009.
The studio is currently marking the 20th anniversary of Coppola’s film with the release of a newly restored 4K version on Nov. 25. The film, which stars Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman, comes just in time for the recently announced special exhibition at the Chateau de Versailles dedicated to the movie. The 4K restoration is being supervised by Sony Pictures Entertainment in collaboration with American Zoetrope.
It follows the late Eleanor Coppola’s new documentary on her daughter’s film, “Making Marie Antoinette.” Pathé is also celebrating the work of Daquin, described by the Lumière Festival as “a unique figure in French cinema, for whom filmmaking and political commitment were one and the same. A member of the Resistance, a staunch communist and union activist heavily involved in defending film industry workers, he considered his craft to be an extension of his convictions.” Part of a special Lumière Festival showcase, Daquin’s works include his 1941 film “Nous les gosses”(“Portrait of Innocence”), the story of a close-knit group of schoolchildren that can be read as a veiled call for resistance. The fest is presenting the film in its restored 2K version.
Likewise screening is 1960’s “The Opportunists” (“Les Arrivistes”), an adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s book “La Rabouilleuse” (known in English as “The Black Sheep” and “The Two Brothers”); set during the Restoration, it follows a former officer of Napoleon whose greed knows no bounds. The Lumière Festival will present the film in its restored 4K version. Also in the Pathé catalogue is the 4K restoration of Daquin’s 1944 drama “Premier de Cordée” (“First in Line”).
Filmed primarily on location in the Chamonix Valley, “Premier de Cordée” represented a remarkable technical achievement during the German occupation of France, Pathé notes. Its themes of struggle, perseverance and self-transcendence resonated strongly with audiences in occupied France.” Pathé describes the Daquin showcase as “an opportunity to rediscover a filmmaker who captured working-class France, made films under the very nose of the occupying forces, and helped shape the institutions of post-war French cinema. He directed several feature films during the German occupation while actively involved in the Communist Resistance.
His films from this period bear the mark of this paradoxal situation: a left-wing filmmaker, involved in the Resistance, working under the constraints of a fascist regime.” Speaking at the Pathé Bellecour theater in Lyon during the Classic Film Market on Friday, Jérôme Seydoux, chairman of Pathé, and Sophie Seydoux, president of the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Fondation, discussed a wide range of pressing issues, from their efforts to preserve, conserve and transmit the company’s century-long heritage to the resilience of cinema, the undeniable power of blockbusters, and the importance of education in cultivating a lasting passion for cinema among young people. Pathé has produced such recent upscale blockbusters as “De Gaulle: Résistance,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan” — the kinds of films that are necessary to keep cinema alive, according to Jérôme Seydoux. It’s difficult because these are obviously bigger risks.
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