Chargeurs

Background

Chargeurs is a major French company, nowadays involved in the textile business. At one point, the company was involved in the entertainment business, being a shareholder in British Satellite Broadcasting, which rivaled Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television. After big losses, the two merged into BSkyB on November 1990.

In 1990, Chargeurs bought Pathé for 1.2 billion francs, which allowed the company to enter the entertainment industry. They entered the United Kingdom by purchasing Guild Home Video in 1992, for example. In 1995, Carolco Pictures, going through financial problems which would eventually lead to their bankruptcy, could no longer provide funding for Showgirls and sold it to the French company to co-produce the movie.

In February 1996, Chargeurs announced they would demerge their entertainment division under the Pathé name, which soon became effective.

1st Logo (1991-1996)

Visuals: A few seconds after the then-current Pathé logo finishes animating, the rectangle flips vertically, turning into a yellow star, and zooms out. A blue oval-shaped ball appears. Four white stars appear from the top of it, surrounding the ball, while the yellow star floats on top of the ball. The text "une société de" appears on the top of the logo, while "CHARGEURS", in a bolded serif font, appears below it.

Technique: Possibly cel animation (by Digital Pictures).

Audio: The end of the dreamy synth/piano tune from the Pathé logo.

Availability: It appears on French theatrical releases from the time.^[Examples?]

2nd Logo (December 26, 1995-July 19, 1996)

Visuals: On a black starry sky background, four stars appear in the middle and go around in a circle (a la the Orion Pictures logo). As this happens, the sky turns blue and shrinks into the circle with the stars inside. Just before it stops shrinking, the stars disappear, then stop inside the circle, which ends up being shaped like an oval. While that happens, an orange spotlight shines behind it and "CHARGEURS" (in the same font as before, but colored green) wipes itself in and shines. The spotlight surrounds the circle (a la New Line Cinema) with a fifth red star inside the spotlight. The logo shines again before fading out.

Variant: A still 2D version exists on a white background.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A lush orchestrated piece with twinkles at the beginning. The still version uses the opening theme instead.

Availability: It appears on international prints of the infamous Showgirls. It also appears on the domestic R-rated cut, which was released on VHS (the domestic theatrical cut, which was NC-17-rated, doesn't use this). The still version appears on overseas prints of Last of the Dogmen, including the Guild Home Video VHS release.