Because of the difficult working conditions in Russia after the Revolution of 1917, the film producer Joseph Ermolieff decided to move his operations to Paris, where he had connections with the Pathé company.
Arriving in 1920 with a group of close associates, Ermolieff took over a studio in Montreuil-sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of Paris and began making films through his company, Ermolieff-Cinéma.
Kamenka's production policy combined prestige projects with openly commercial films,[5] and his consistent record made him the most successful French producer during the 1920s, according to Charles Spaak, who came to the company as a script-writer in 1928.
The arrival of sound pictures posed a serious difficulty for Albatros, which had hitherto relied considerably upon Russian actors, especially Mosjoukine, whose accent precluded a successful transition into the talking era.
[7] The company's output diminished in the 1930s, but it achieved one further artistic success of note when Jean Renoir joined them for his 1936 adaptation of Gorki's Les Bas-fonds.