Gaumont
| Gaumont
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Société Anonyme |
| founding | 1895 |
| Seat | Neuilly-sur-Seine , France |
| Website | www.gaumont.com |
Gaumont is a French film company and the oldest film production company in the world that is still operating today.
First years
In 1895 the French film pioneer Léon Gaumont founded the company Société L. Gaumont et compagnie to build and sell photographic equipment. In 1896 the company brought the Chronophotograph Demeny-Gaumont onto the market, an apparatus based on the principle of chronophotography that could be used both as a film camera and as a projector .
Gaumont went into film production . Alice Guy-Blaché , originally Gaumont's secretary, became the company's artistic director and director of almost all films produced by Gaumont from 1897, with Ferdinand Zecca often helping her as an assistant. Under Guy-Blaché's aegis, a cinematic style developed for the first time that went beyond mere filming of street situations, but structured the cinematic space ( mise-en-scène ). She was followed by directors such as Louis Feuillade , who realized the Fantômas series for Gaumont, Jacques Feyder , Marcel L'Herbier and Claude Autant-Lara .
expansion
Léon Gaumont experimented with the possibilities of producing a sound film and in 1902 he invented the chronophon , a device with which the images of a film could be synchronized with the sound of a record player. From 1908 onwards, short speech and opera films were produced in this way. In 1906 the company was renamed the Société des établissements Gaumont and expanded enormously. It built film studios, development laboratories and cinemas. Gaumont thus became Pathé's fiercest competitor .
In 1908 Gaumont published the weekly newsreel Gaumont actualités . In the same year she published her first cartoon Fantasmagorie , made by the illustrator Émile Cohl . Gaumont paid tribute to the movement of the Film d'Art with the series of films made by Feuillade between 1911 and 1913, Life as it is . It was characterized by a realistic style that stood out from the otherwise predominantly theatrical productions.
Decline after the First World War
The First World War led to the decline of French film production. Most of the market was served with American films. Gaumont ran into financial difficulties, whereupon MGM bought in. Gaumont now loaned the MGM films in France and also indicated this business connection in its new name Gaumont Metro Goldwyn . The collaboration ended in 1929. Léon Gaumont retired; his shares in the company bought the Société des Établissements L. Aubert and the Franco Film . The newly created Gaumont Franco Film Aubert continued the work it had begun to build its own cinemas and produce films.In addition to the main business with comedies, Gaumont Franco Film Aubert also produced film classics such as Jean Vigo's Behagen insufficient (1933) and Atalante (1934) . The company went bankrupt, was formally dissolved and became state property in 1938.
Reorientation after the Second World War
Under the name Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont , the company mainly took on lending tasks, until 1961 two new production divisions emerged, Gaumont International and Gaumont Industry . Nicolas Seydoux became the new main owner in 1975. Under his aegis, the company name (company) was reduced to Gaumont and the company expanded again. In the 1970s and 1980s many prestigious directors such as Bergman , Fellini and Visconti worked for Gaumont . A severe crisis arose in 1983 when the Gaumont branch in Rome suffered heavy losses.
Gaumont abroad
Gaumont expanded abroad as early as the 1910s, including Russia and the USA. The subsidiary Gaumont Film Company was founded in England, which in 1927 finally became Gaumont-British after being cut off from the French parent company . Under the direction of Michael Balcon , Gaumont-British merged with Gainsborough Pictures in 1932 and, for example, brought out the documentary Men von Aran in 1934, directed by Robert J. Flaherty . Some of Hitchcock's British films, for example The 39 Steps (1935), were also made by Gaumont . Balcon's successor was J. Arthur Rank , who tried to reorganize the now heavily indebted company.
In 2018, Gaumont GmbH was founded as a German subsidiary with offices in Cologne and Berlin. As of July 1, 2018, the managing director is the former Warner Bros. ITVP fiction cefin Sabine de Mardt . Gaumont GmbH produces u. a. the Netflix series The Barbarians , the film adaptation of the bestseller 9 Days Awake by Eric Stehfest (for ProSieben ) and Julia Durant determine the consequences of cold blood - Julia Durant and Murderous Days - Julia Durant determined on SAT1 .
Gaumont today
The company is now divided into the Gaumont cinema chain , the Gaumont film production company and the Gaumont Télévision television production company, founded in 1991 . Films, videos and DVDs are distributed through Gaumont Buena Vista International and Gaumont / Columbia / Tri-Star Home Video . The Cinémathèque Gaumont has dedicated itself to the restoration of old film collections. For the exploitation of historical film materials, Gaumont and Pathé have joined forces to form the Gaumont Pathé Archives .
Gaumont is led by Nicolas Seydoux (President), Sidonie Dumas (Directrice Générale) and Christophe Riandee (Directeur Général Adjoint).
literature
- Philippe Binant: Au cœur de la projection numérique , Actions, 29 , 12-13, Kodak, Paris, 2007. [1] (PDF; 10.7 MB)
- Marie-Sophie Corcy, Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni, Jean-Jacques Meusy: Les Premières Années de la société L. Gaumont et Cie , Afrhc, Bibliothèque du Film, Gaumont, Paris, 1999.
- François Garçon: Gaumont. Un siècle de cinéma , Gallimard, Paris, 1992.
- Philippe d'Hugues and Dominique Muller: Gaumont, 90 ans de cinéma , Editions Ramsay, Cinémathèque Française, Paris, 1986.
- Nicolas Seydoux: Cent ans de réflexions , Cent ans de cinéma, 6-15, Gaumont, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1995.
- La Cinémathèque Française (ed.): Gaumont, 90 ans de cinéma . Paris 1986.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ DWDL.de GmbH: "Narcos" producer Gaumont founds German subsidiary - DWDL.de . In: DWDL.de . ( dwdl.de [accessed on January 24, 2018]).
- ↑ NETFLIX PRODUCES FIVE NEW GERMAN ORIGINAL SERIES. Retrieved January 3, 2020 .
- ↑ 9 days awake: ProSieben secures a prominent cast for a bestseller film. September 30, 2019, accessed January 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Qui - Gaumont. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .