Pathe C
ORDERBY-NAME: Pathé, Charles
OTHER-NAME: none
BIRTH: 25 December 1863; Chevry-Cossigny, France
DEATH: 1957; Principality of Monaco
CATEGORY: Performing Arts & Sports; Business & Industry
DISCIPLINE: Film
ASSESSMENT: One of the three major figures in French film and an important part of the history of motion pictures. Along with the Lumière brothers and George Méliès, Charles Pathé helped make the French film industry the most powerful in the world from 1900 to 1914.
LANGUAGE: French
EDUCATION: No formal education
ACHIEVEMENTS: Created the company Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers). His company produced the first newsreels for cinema. He introduced the “Pathé baby”, a camera and projector to encourage home movies. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Pathé Brothers was the largest film production company in the world.
MAJOR-WORK: Histoire d’un crime (1901), Les victimes d’alcoolisme (1902), Les Debuts d'un Aeronaute (1907), Les Misérables (1909 and 1912))
PARENTS: Names unknown
SPOUSE: unknown
SIBLINGS: three brothers: Emile, Jacques and Theophile
CHILDREN: unknown
DETAILS: Pathé’s father, a butcher and cook, struggled to support the family. At the age of twelve, Pathé helped out by joining the work force. Later, in his twenties, Pathé was still looking to make his fortune. He joined the military and traveled to Argentina hoping to find success in the New World.
He returned to France in 1891, at the age of twenty-nine, still searching. A few years later, he found success with the Edison phonograph. Pathé began as a promoter of the phonograph by taking it to country fairs and exhibiting it as a form of popular entertainment.
Pathé was successful and was able to set up a shop he also used as a recording studio. He recorded many famous stage artists of the time including the soprano Mary <recorded> Garden*. Pathé became interested in motion pictures and bought an Edison Kinetoscope to exhibit at fairgrounds, just as he had done with the phonograph.
The technology for creating motion pictures had just been developed, in 1895, by the <work related to> Lumière Brothers*. Edison’s Kinetoscope did not allow more than one person to view the picture at a time – it was called a “peep show” – but the Lumière’s invention, the Cinématographe, not only allowed a public viewing of the picture, it also weighed much less the the 500 pound Kinetoscope.
In 1986, Pathé joined with his brothers to create a business called the Pathé Frères or the Pathé Brothers. They opened an office on 98 rue de Richelieu, Paris. Charles saw motion pictures becoming “the theatre, the newspaper and the school of the future.”
Although Pathé saw the potential business opportunities in motion pictures, his company made most of their business from the sale of phonographs until about 1901. It was only when he received a large investment from the electrical manufacturer, Grivolas, in 1898, that he was able to devote his time to motion pictures. He left the sale of phonographs to his brother Emile and branched out into film production.
The technology was very new and not many people had experience creating motion pictures. Pathé hired Ferdinand Zecca to be his producer. Their first goal was to mass-produce films aimed at fairground managers and popular audiences. At the Paris Exhibition of 1900, Pathé had a showcase for his new films.
It was not unusual at the time to plagiarize popular films. Copyright for motion pictures did not exist as it does now. Zecca, however, became known for his own films such as Histoire d’un crime (1901) and Les victimes d’alcoolisme (1902).
The company created a successful film-stock business and the Pathé brothers became the largest film production company in the world. Pathé had developed an assembly-line production style to make short films (the company was producing five hundred films a year). He had set up a film studio in Vincennes and the business was expanding rapidly. Pathé also developed a network of branches in Europe (Milan, London, and Berlin) and New York called Pathé Exchange.
As the demand for motion pictures grew, so did the competition. By this time, Pathé Brothers had control of much of the market. They were involved in virtually every aspect of film production from the manufacture of blank film and motion picture equipment to the ownership of studios, labs and theatres.
In 1907, Pathé developed a system of renting films through distribution centers. This concept of film distribution rather than direct sales is still in practice today. Pathé now played an important role in each of the three branches of the movie industry: production, distribution and exhibition.
Pathé also contributed other “firsts” to the developing motion picture industry. The Pathé Brothers created the first newsreel: the Pathé Journal, in 1908. These newsreels were the forerunner of current-events footage on film. The Pathé Brothers also developed a color process called Pathé-Color.
Charles Pathé was also interested in the development of the motion picture as an art. He became associated with various film organizations such as the Film d’Art and the S.C.A.G.L., an organization for literary people interested in film.
The Pathé film Les Debuts d'un Aeronaute (1907) was the first film to feature an accident-prone clown. The clown, Max Linder was to lead the way for such comedians as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Another important Pathé film was an adaptation of <adapted work of> Hugo’s* Les Misérables (1909 and 1913). However, motion picture technology was not yet ready for such large-scale works. The 1913 production of Les Misérables used twelve reels of silent film.
When World War I broke out in Europe, Charles Pathé went to the United States to work on the American branch of his business, Pathé Exchange. Upon returning to France in 1917, he found that his distribution system was in chaos, the costs for production had soared, and that American films were taking over the market.
He ordered his producers to make films specifically for the American audience, but could not reverse the trend. The advent of Hollywood brought an end to the dominance of the French film industry.
The Pathé Brothers business gradually dwindled. By 1929, Kodak had taken over his film-stock industry and Pathé had sold his last interest in the business. He retired to Monaco, where his lived quietly until his dteath.
Charles Pathé was one of the few to survive in the early motion picture industry. His keen business sense and his passion for film placed French film industry in the forefront of early cinematography. He promoted the development of a new art form and he made it available to the average person.
EXTRA-CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Charles Pathe, French movie industry pioneer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Cook, S. (Ed.), International dictionary of films and filmmakers. Volume 4: Writers and production artists (2nd ed.). Detroit: St. James Press, 1993
Kate, E., The film encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York: Harper-Collins, 1998
Lanzoni, R.F,. French cinema from its beginnings to the present. New York: Continuum International, 2002