Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation

Updated on September 30, 2026

On avenue des Gobelins, the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation preserves the heritage of Pathé, the company founded in 1896 by Charles and Émile Pathé. It presents a gallery of film equipment, temporary exhibitions drawn from its archives and a screening room devoted to silent cinema. Renzo Piano’s building rises behind a façade sculpted by Auguste Rodin around 1869, on the site of a former theatre in the 13th arrondissement.

Highlights

The equipment gallery

Some fifty cameras, projectors and accessories made by Pathé over 90 years trace the history of film-based cinema. Look for the Pathé Professionnelle camera, the Pathé-Baby and Pathé-Rural projectors and the 1960s Pathé-Webo M camera. Film extracts show how these machines work.

Posters and archives

The collections gather posters, set photographs, programmes and letters dating back to the founding of Pathé frères. The exhibition spaces, on two levels, show a selection linked to the film seasons. This poster for Le Règne de Louis XIV, drawn in 1904 by Candido Aragonez de Faria, belongs to the Foundation’s holdings.

The Charles Pathé screening room

This 68-seat room is devoted to silent cinema: film seasons, carte blanche programmes and special screenings. Every silent film is accompanied by an improvising pianist. Early Pathé films could be coloured, as this colourists’ workshop photographed in 1907 shows.

Infos pratiques

Tips

An exhibition ticket costs €5, or €3 at the reduced rate (students, under-26s, over-65s, jobseekers, disabled visitors). The combined screening and exhibition ticket costs €7, €5.50 reduced and €4.50 for under-14s (prices checked in September 2026). A guided tour of the building takes place on Saturdays at 12:00. Suitcases are not allowed, and the Foundation closes in summer: check the dates before you come.