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Pathé or Pathé Frères ((:pate fʁɛʁ), styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in cinemas prior to a feature film. Today, Pathé is a major film production and distribution company, owns a great number of cinema chains, across Europe but mainly in France, including 66% of the Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé a joint venture between Pathé and the Gaumont Film Company, and several television networks across Europe. It is the second oldest still-operating film company in the world, predating Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, second only to the French Gaumont Film Company studio. ==History== The company was founded as Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Company) in Paris, France on 28 September 1896, by the four brothers Charles, Émile, Théophile and Jacques Pathé. During the first part of the 20th century, Pathé became the largest film equipment and production company in the world, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. The driving force behind the film operation was Charles Pathé, who had helped open a gramophone shop in 1894 and then established a phonograph factory at Chatou on the western outskirts of Paris. As these became successful, he saw the opportunities offered by new means of entertainment and in particular by the fledgling motion picture industry. Having decided to expand the record business to include film equipment, Charles Pathé oversaw a rapid expansion of the company. To finance its growth, he took the company public under the name Compagnie Générale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes (sometimes abbreviated as "C.G.P.C.") in 1897, and its shares were listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.〔(''Charles Morand Pathé: French producer, manufacturer'' ), Henri Bousquet, (Who's Who of Victorian Cinema )〕 In 1896, Mitchell Mark of Buffalo, New York, may have been the first American to import Pathé films to the United States, where they were shown in the Vitascope Theater. In 1902, Pathé acquired the Lumière brothers' patents and then set about to design an improved studio camera and to make their own film stock. Their technologically advanced equipment, new processing facilities built at Vincennes, and aggressive merchandising combined with efficient distribution systems allowed them to capture a huge share of the international market. They first expanded to London in 1902 where they set up production facilities and a chain of movie theaters. By 1909, Pathé had built more than 200 movie theaters in France and Belgium and by the following year they had facilities in Madrid, Moscow, Rome and New York City plus Australia and Japan. Slightly later, they opened a film exchange in Buffalo, New York. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, Pathé dominated Europe's market in motion picture cameras and projectors. It has been estimated〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.electrolux.co.uk/Innovation/Campaigns/Temp-Cannes/Le-menu-de-Cannes/Articles/How-to-get-the-Cannes1/ )〕 that at one time, 60 percent of all films were shot with Pathé equipment. In 1908, Pathé distributed ''Excursion to the Moon'' by Segundo de Chomón, an imitation of Georges Méliès's ''A Trip to the Moon''. Pathé and Méliès worked together in 1911. Georges Méliès made a film ''Baron Munchausen's Dream'', his first film to be distributed by Pathé. Pathé's relationship with Méliès soured, and in 1913 Méliès went bankrupt, and his last film was never released by Pathé. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pathé」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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