Chargeurs

Credits

Descriptions by
Logophile and RSX-798

Video captures courtesy of
Eric S.

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 the British Satellite Broadcasting, which rivaled Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television. After big losses, the two merged into BSkyB on November 1990. In 1992, Chargeurs bought Pathé for 1.2 billion francs, though they demerged four years later. 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.

(September 1995)

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Logo: On a black starry sky background, four stars appear in the middle and go around in a circle (ala the Orion Pictures logo). As this happens, the sky turns blue and the blue shrinks into the circle with the stars inside. Just before it stops shrinking, the stars disappear. The stars stop inside the circle. While that happens an orange spotlight shines behind it and "CHARGEURS" in green wipes itself in and shines. The spotlight surrounds the circle (ala 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.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

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

Availability: Appears on international prints of the infamous Showgirls; it does, however, appear on the domestic R-rated cut, which was released on VHS. The still version appears on overseas prints of Last of the Dogmen, including the Guild Home Video VHS release.