Pathé

Pathé Pathé Frères is the name or various companies in the music and film industry. At Pathé also includes a record label, see Pathé Records. The company was founded on 28 September 1896 in Paris as Société Pathé Frères by Charles, Émile, Théophile and Jacques Pathé. The four brothers laid per 8,000 francs together from their savings in order to sell the company phonographic devices. Already from 1896 production was begun manufacturing its own rolling, but in 1906 set back in favor of the record, with your own special formats were developed. During the first half of the 20th century, Pathé became the largest film equipment and production company in the world and one of the leading record companies.

The driving force behind the company from its beginnings to 1929 was Charles Pathé who had been involved in 1894 at the opening of a shop for rolling and later in the Paris suburb of Chatou opened a record factory. Early on, he recognized the potential of the new branch of the entertainment industry: the movie.

From the beginnings to 1929

After Pathé had in 1902 granted the rights to patents by the Lumière brothers, they set about to develop a studio camera and to compile an inventory of film equipment. Your technologically advanced equipment, their aggressive merchandising and an efficient distribution system meant that they had a high market share in the world market. 1902, the company expanded to the UK. In London she founded a production company and a cinema chain. In 1904 the establishment of a subsidiary in Vienna. This was a long time, until the founding of the first Austrian film companies, the sole right to film the emperor. 1909 Pathé had built in France and Belgium over 200 cinemas. The following year she had company branch in Madrid, Moscow, Rome, New York, Australia and Japan.

Pathé - Natan (1929-1939)

In February 1929, Bernard Natan estimated the future success of the talkies a more optimistic than the other major movie studios and producers in France. Under the name Pathé - Natan he took over the Pathé studio.

From 1929 to 1935, the new studio produced 70 feature films. Among the directors who worked for panthe - Natan, included, inter alia, Marcel L' Herbier, Jacques de Baroncelli, René Clair, Jean Grémillon, Jacques Prévert and Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. For the actors, especially Jean Gabin and Renée Saint- Cyr are emphasized. In addition, the distribution of French-language versions of numerous foreign productions was - such as Mickey Mouse - guaranteed. In addition, the company acquired shares in a radio station and some early patents in the CinemaScope and in television technology.

As a long-term consequence of the complicated Pathé acquisition, especially as the victim of a xenophobic and anti-Semitic campaign Natan ran into financial difficulties and had to declare their 1936 insolvency. Distinction must be made between the cinema and film production companies, which had been operated profitably until recently (even the cinema division would later be able to pay its liabilities, including default interest ). Bernard Natan then worked in the studios of Paramount in Saint -Maurice.

In December 1938, Natan was arrested. In 1939 and again in 1941 he was convicted of fraud and had to play a prison sentence. He was still, when the Germans occupied Paris in 1940. After his release in 1942 he was handed over by withdrawing French citizenship to the German occupiers and deported on September 25, 1942 to Auschwitz, where he is supposed to have died a few weeks later.

Natan had - unlike his business partner and later adversary Charles Pathé - no way, in retrospect represent his view of things.

Société nouvelle (1940-1990)

Having established that the company Pathé - Natan had no liabilities, the Société nouvelle Pathé Cinéma was founded on the basis of the remaining assets.

Pathé since 1990

1990 acquired the French group Chargeuse that belongs Jérôme Seydoux Pathé. Due to the deregulation took place in 1990 by the French telecommunications, entertainment and media market, the company was able to close in June of the same year with Vivendi. Vivendi retained after the merger, some of the Pathé investments in the UK. All other rights went to the owned by the Seydoux family Fournier SA, which subsequently changed its name to Pathé.

2011 Pathé had the following business:

• Cinema: production, distribution to cinemas and for home use, own cinema theater and the exploitation of the rights of use of more than 500 films
• Cable and satellite television networks, including Télé Monte Carlo, Comédie! , Cuisine.tv, Voyage

Outside of France, Pathé brings out his films on VHS or DVD. For the 20th anniversary of the realignment of the company a 21 DVD comprehensive publication with 20 films from the period 1990 to 2010 with a comprehensive 500-page booklet was published.