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Transferring the master copies into a digital for- mat will not affect these products in the short term, but in the long term might enable Pathé to offer a more personal service still.
“Maybe, if you wanted something specific, say you were born in Grimsby in 1952, then we could come up with something connected with that,” muses Aston, aware that this possibility is some wayoff. “Oneofmyotherambitions,though,isto create a stills library, which we can concentrate on when we’ve finished re-cataloguing everything.”
In addition to making the archive more accessi- ble to the public, there is clearly a market for film and tv producers, whether they are keen to research an aspect of a particular period or insert that prime Pathé footage into their production.
“We supply clips for TV productions across the world, as well as commercials and corporate films. There are not many, but a small number each year, of feature films. In Angela’s Ashes there’s a bit where the boys go to the cinema and there they are watching Pathé News. That was organised through us. Saving Private Ryan, there’s a few clips in that.”
Asked to name his own favourite clip, Aston, suddenly seems apprehensive.
“It’s a bit morbid,” he explains, apologetically. “It’s from 1910, and it shows a man who thought he could fly, jumping off the top of the Eiffel Tower. He fell straight to his death. That’s very dramatic.”
Thinking for a moment he adds another, slightly cheerier, example. “A lot of them are about the minutiae of daily life, so another favourite would be the scene where the British and the Soviet army met somewhere in Germany as they linked up at the end of the Second World War. It’s a very potent moment.”
Whether capturing potent, poignant, silly or dramatic moments, it may have seemed that news- reels like Pathé would always be on hand to record life in all its rich, weird and bizarre vari- eties. “Pathé was an integral and important part of British consciousness for a very long time,” Aston agrees, “especially during and immediately after the war. Pathé was a strong brand then, it still is today, and hopefully it will become even stronger in the future. Only time will tell.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Photos from top: At work in the hi-tech equipped studios; Bobby Moore celebrates the 1966 World Cup win over Germany; Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll; Laurel & Hardy The First!