The legendary cinemas of Paris
A neo-Egyptian palace in Barbès, an Art Deco auditorium of nearly three thousand seats, a little Latin Quarter cinema showing classics since 1938: Paris is the city of the silver screen.
Paris is probably the city where people go to the cinema more than anywhere else in the world. It has multiplexes like everywhere else, but also a constellation of old, independent, sometimes tiny cinemas showing heritage films, retrospectives and premieres. Some have become true monuments.
Le Grand Rex
Opened in 1932 on the Grands Boulevards, the Grand Rex is one of the largest cinemas in Europe. Its main auditorium, with nearly three thousand seats, is decorated like an open-air Mediterranean town: façades, balconies and palm trees beneath a starry ceiling. People come for premieres, big animated films, and the rare pleasure of seeing a film in such an outsized auditorium. The building is a listed historic monument.
Le Louxor
Built in 1921 at the Barbès crossroads, the Louxor owes its name and façade to the Egyptian craze that followed the great archaeological discoveries of the time: blue, gold and black mosaics, friezes and motifs inspired by ancient Egypt. Long abandoned, it was bought by the City of Paris and reopened in 2013 after a complete restoration. Today it shows art-house films in a unique setting.
Studio 28
In the heart of Montmartre, on the rue Tholozé, Studio 28 opened in 1928 and claims the title of the oldest art-house cinema in Paris. The whole avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s passed through it. In 1930, the screening of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s L’Âge d’or caused a riot there, with far-right activists ransacking the auditorium. Today it has a small garden, a bar, and chandeliers designed by Jean Cocteau.
The Latin Quarter has a unique concentration of small independent cinemas. Le Champo, on the rue des Écoles, has been showing the great classics since 1938, and François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol were among its regulars long before they stepped behind the camera.
Le Max Linder Panorama
On the Grands Boulevards, a stone’s throw from the Grand Rex, this cinema bears the name of Max Linder, one of the first great comic stars of silent film, who bought it in 1914. Renovated several times, it is known for its giant screen and the quality of its projection, and it draws film lovers who want to see great films in the best conditions.
La Cinémathèque française
Founded in 1936 by Henri Langlois, Georges Franju and Jean Mitry, the Cinémathèque was the school of the entire New Wave. Housed since 2005 in Bercy, in a building designed by the architect Frank Gehry, it holds one of the richest collections of films, posters and cinema objects in the world, and screens retrospectives every day.
Good habits
- Arrive before the screening starts, and switch off your phone, really.
- Do not talk during the film, not even in a whisper.
- In heritage cinemas, stay for the credits: they are part of the film.
- Morning screenings and retrospectives are often the finest experiences.
A film seen in a beautiful cinema is never quite the same film.
