“Film d’Art” was the name of a company before it became known as the name of a movement. Paul Laffitte was a prominent personality in France as an investor in theatre, cinema, literature and art. Paul Laffitte made significant investments in the Compagnie des cinématographes Théophile Pathé and the Compagnie des Cinéma-Halls (Paris Cinema Network) in 1907. After these investments, he founded Film d’Art in 1908 to make theatre adaptations in cinema at the request of the Comédie-Française members. The Film d’Art movement would emerge with theatrical adaptation films produced by some French companies of the time, especially by Film d’Art.

In French, Film d’Art means art film. One of the starting points of the definition of “art film” encountered today is the Film d’Art movement.

Before the Film d’Art movement, cinema was far from the status of “art”. Despite this, cinema gained recognition and interest in the public thanks to the films of the Cinema of Attractions movement that impressed the audience. Such interest was an important sign for the cinema to become a sector on its own.

The profit margin of the films was much higher than the theatrical productions. The duration of the films was short and the cost of setting and acting was pretty low. Films shot with low initial investment costs were presented to the audience many times and revenue was generated repeatedly. The profit margin of a cinema that is widely accepted with more qualified films could have been a lot higher.

Pathé and Film d’Art aimed to make the film a medium for art (cinema) and to raise the cultural level of the French people with cinema that has attained a status of “art”.

Le Film d’Art Logo Film d’Art was designed and used to shape the public before the concept of motion pictures in propaganda arose. Culturally lower classes of the public watched film adaptations of theatrical productions thanks to the Film d’Art movement. The public developed with the cultural background of the theatre. Simultaneously, cinema, which was culturally underestimated by theatre and opera audiences, became a medium of art by including adaptations of theatrical productions. Over time, those who produced for the theatres wanted to produce also for the cinema and those who watched theatrical productions started to watch also cinema productions. Therefore, together with cinema, which does not have any historical burdens, the cultural classes all moved to the upper echelon. The concept of “le grand éducateur du peuple” (the great educator of the people) used to describe the cinema in France emerged with the Film d’Art movement as a result of using cinema with the motivation of cultural development.

Film d’Art films weren’t just produced by the Film d’Art studio. A unit called Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et des Gens de Lettres was established within Pathé, which had the same purpose as the Film d’Art studio. There were also other studios in France that would produce “art films” like the Film d’Art studio. Although the name of the Film d’Art studio had been over-identified with the movement, the films produced were sometimes released from other studios in France and also from Pathé.

Gaumont Palace interior The concept of “the great educator of the people” was not the only reason behind Pathé’s shaping the Film d ‘Art business so much. Pathé had been in the industry since cinema appeared in France. The Pathé brothers (Charles, Émile, Théophile, Jacques) founded the Pathé in 1896. During the establishment period, the company focused on phonograph sales. Shortly after, it entered the cylinder records market. In 1896, shortly after its establishment, Pathé had the chance to open offices outside of Paris, namely in London, Milan and Saint Petersburg. Pathé decided to enter the film industry after such rapid growth. It would soon become one of the largest suppliers of cinema equipment in the world, after obtaining the patents held by the Lumiere brothers.

In the same year that Film d’Art was established, the first major Film d’Art production also met with the audience. L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908) was regarded as the prelude to the Film d’Art movement. Directed by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy, the duration of this film was 15 minutes. The film depicts the incident in 1588 when King Henry III conspired to get his powerful rival, Duke Henri de Guise, killed in his room at the Château de Blois. The assassination planned at the beginning of the film begins when Duke Henri de Guise enters the frame after a short wait. After a few hesitations and setbacks experienced by the group that will commit the murder, the assassination comes true as planned. L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise is both one of the first examples of the movement and one of its most important films.

Pathé had an extensive international network and an unlimited amount of equipment. Its marketing strategies were aggressive. Improving the quality of the films and introducing the star system was a great opportunity for further growth of the film industry, in which its share was huge. Film d’Art films were an important ace in Pathé’s hand against its biggest rival, Gaumont, the world’s first film company. Gaumont responded to Pathé’s Film d’Art move with Théâtro-Film in 1909. Théâtro-Film was bringing cinema adaptations of theatre productions into being, just like Film d’Art. The films released by Théâtro-Film are also considered under the Film d’Art movement.

As a result of the competition between the two companies, high-cost films produced within the star system and to be presented to the audience in luxury movie theatres were produced. With the rapid rise of cinema, the theatre began to lag behind in a short span of time in every field against the cinema, whose development it contributed.

6000 seat Gaumont Palace in Paris, once the largest cinema in the world The theatre productions were not the only thing brought from theatre to cinema with the Film d’Art. Theatre directors, technical crew and theatre players were also transferred to the cinema. While the directors themselves and their close circle acted in the films shot before the Film d’Art, with the Film d’Art, theatre players became indispensable elements of the films. With the Film d’Art movement, the star system was introduced in European cinema.

With the Film d’Art movement, people who would go to see a film started to pay attention to what the film was about, the actors, director and scriptwriter. This caused the cinema to quickly sever all ties with movements such as the Cinema of Attractions, become more “qualified” and start to be mentioned as an “art”.

Film d’Art Film Studio Although the transformation that cinema went through with the Film d’Art movement gave it an artistic value, there was less “cinema” compared to the past. While the studios producing for the Film d’Art were trying to turn cinema into an art; by feeding it with theatre, they actually created a new version of the old theatre rather than a new cinema. What was reflected on the screen in the Film d’Art films was the filmed version of the theatre with all its components. The proscenium arch between the audience and the theatre play became more prominent in cinema with the Film d’Art movement.

Although Film d’Art is considered to be the first period in which cinema first met stories in some sources, there are many short story films that were shot long before the Film d’Art movement emerged. These are The Haunted Castle (1896), Le Voyage Dans la Lune (1902), Personal (1904) and several others.

During and after the Film d’Art movement, many other cinema movements were on the rise in Europe. The number of avant-garde movements was very high in Europe and especially in France. The rise of avant-garde movements reduced the space of Film d’Art, which was a theatre-based cinema movement. Although Film d’Art would continue its existence as a company until 1972, the movement it created was soon going to lose its effect.

The fact that the Film d’Art did not technically serve the cinema and it put the cinema under the guidance of the theatre soon started to draw the reaction of directors, who especially produced/wanted to produce avant-garde productions. These directors pushed the limits and wended their way to avant-garde movement films, which were very difficult to finance. Following the rise of avant-garde movements and the widespread acceptance of one of these, French Impressionism, the number of Film d’Art films dropped significantly.

Another cinema that rose beside the avant-garde movements was Hollywood. The effects of American cinema and the fact that it was gaining a seat in the French cinema market narrowed down the production volume of Film d’Art films.

With the spreading and acceptance of cinema’s own techniques, Film d’Art films became very difficult to gain acceptance. Over time, even films adapted from theatrical productions began to be shot using the cinema techniques, not the techniques of the Film d’Art movement.

Paul Laffitte managed the Film d’Art studio for a very short time (1908-1909). After that, Paul Gavault (1909-1911), Charles Delac (1911-1936), and Marcel Vandal (1911-1936) took office in the management of Film d’Art. The last manager of the Film d’Art, which was to be closed in 1972, was Henri Diamant-Berger (1936-1972).

Film d’Art played a significant role in cinema being mentioned as the seventh art. When doing so, it partially transformed the cinema into the recording instrument of the theatre by not allowing enough for the techniques and talents of the cinema.

It pioneered the production of better quality films by bringing cinema theatre chains, distribution networks and the star system into the cinema in Europe. It helped cinema transform into an “art” and paved the way for it to become an industry.

Apart from all these, Film d’Art achieved its goals in line with its original establishment purpose. It left behind a France that comes to mind when it comes to cinema.

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