Chargeurs

Logo description by Logophile Video capture 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 Broadcaster, 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. In 1996, Pathé was spun-off from Chargeurs.

(September 22, 1995)

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.

FX/SFX: The circle, the stars, "CHARGEURS" wiping itself in, the shining.

Music/Sounds: A lush orchestrated piece with twinkles at the beginning.

Availability: This only appears on international prints of the infamous Showgirls; it does, however, appear on the domestic R-rated cut, which was released on VHS. It is unknown if European prints of Last of the Dogmen have this logo, but a print logo has appeared on some copies.

Editor's Note: None.