…Or how the cinema industry has been forged as we know it.
In 1885 the Lumière brothers publicly presented the cinematograph – The enthusiasm of the public was immediate. The 7th art was born. Here begins the adventure of two witty French entrepreneurs: Pathé and Gaumont. Thanks to their great intuition and their business acumen, they changed the cinema from an entertaining fair’s attraction into a mass medium. Huge investments along with the professionalization of the film industry and the development of techniques contributed to the expansion of the business. Despite the rivalry between the two empires, the two visionnaires respected each other. Through a talented use of archives – known and inedit footage – the director manages to tell an incredibly gripping story – inserted in a social and historical contextualization.