France

 France

Filming inside a real building without using artificial light, Perret created dramatic silhouette effects in L’Enfant de Paris.

During the early 1910s, the French film industry was still thriving.
1)Many new theaters were being built, and demand was high.
2)Although imported American films were beginning to encroach on the market,
3)French production remained robust.

Pathe's Future

In 1913, however, the largest company, Pathé Frères,
1)took the first of several steps that ultimately would harm the French industry.
2)It cut back on the increasingly costly production side of the business to concentrate
   on the profitable areas of distribution and exhibition.
3)In the United States, French films were being squeezed out by the growth of independent
    firms.
4)Pathé left the MPPC, forming an independent distribution firm in 1913.
5)This firm released several widely successful serials during the 1910s,
   including The Perils of Pauline.
6)By 1919, however, Pathé’s concentration on serials and shorts put it on the margins
    of the American industry, which was dominated by big firms making features.

Gaumont's Future
1)Unlike Pathé, Gaumont expanded its production in the years just before the war.
2)Two important Gaumont directors, Léonce Perret and Louis Feuillade, did some
   of their best work during this period.
3)Perret had come to fame in 1909 as a comic actor, directing his own series of “Léonce”
   films.
4)During the mid-1910s, he also made some major features.
5)L’Enfant de Paris (“Child of Paris,” 1913) and Le Roman d’un mousse (“Tale of a Cabin
   Boy,” 1914) were powerfully melodramatic narratives of abducted children.
6)They were notable for their beautiful cinematography,
    a)including skillful location filming and
    b)an unusual use of backlighting.
7)Perret also varied his camera angles considerably and broke scenes down into more shots
   than was then typical.
8)He thus helped expand the cinema’s expressive possibilities.
9)Perret’s style became more formulaic later on, when he worked in Hollywood in the
   second half of the decade and 
10)Returned to France to make historical epics in the 1920s.

No wish to Monopolize
1)Despite Pathé’s and Gaumont’s dominance in French production,
   they made no attempt to monopolize the industry, and
2)smaller companies coexisted peacefully with them, staying in business by specializing in
    certain types of films.
3)All this activity came to an abrupt halt when World War I began.
4)By the end of 1914, it had become apparent that the fighting would continue for quite a
   while, and some theaters reopened.
5)In early 1915, production resumed on a limited basis.
6)Newsreels became more important, and all the firms made highly patriotic fiction films,
   such as Mères Françaises (“French Mothers,” 1917, René Hervil and Louis Mercanton).