Paris is the European capital that has the largest number of movie theaters. Of course the movie scene has changed during these last decades and one can regret the disappearance of some mythical cinemas such as the Gaumont Palace, built Place de Clichy on the occasion of the renovation of the old racetrack for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, then brought up to date in the Art Deco tradition by the architect Henri Belloc in 1931. With a giant screen and  6000 seats it was the first one amongst  the large cinemas – the ‘largest in the world’ as advertised then – which sprang up in the capital in the 30’s.`

Nowadays you can still go on the Grands Boulevards to the Grand Rex, one of the most beautiful Parisian cinema built as well in the Art Deco style on the architect Jack Haïk’s initiative, the owner of the Olympia then. There you will find  again under its starry vault the atmosphere of yesterday. Those who are attached to the architectural heritage that some movie theaters show will be delighted with the announced re-opening of the ‘Louxor’ – located at the corner of boulevard Magenta and boulevard de la Chapelle – named after the Egyptian style of its facade.

Between 1946 and 1995, 70% of the Parisian movie theaters were closed down. Small ones and big ones.

The emergence and the increase of the multiplex system contribute to a redevelopment of the cinema scene: « we are no longer in the dream or poetic fields, we are in the industrial concentration, in the market share fields » says the photographer Jean-François Chaput; he decided to immortalize the Parisian cinemas that were fast disappearing however admitting that  « …thanks to multiplex, the average quality of the movie theaters has improved »…

No monumental movie theater on boulevard Saint-Michel or Saint-Germain, but places with a history. We must remember that before installing his musée du Cinéma at the Palais de Chaillot in 1963, the Cinémathèque française(1) owned a cinema #29 rue d’Ulm since1955.

Also rue Danton, as soon as 1948, Eric Rohmer led the Ciné-club of the Latin quarter where he met François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette. He was in charge of the debates and of the bulletin that in 1950 became la ‘Gazette du cinéma’ , a cinema critical magazine five issues of which were published in 1950. Jacques Rivette collaborated on the magazine, Jean-Luc Godard wrote in it under the pseudo of Hans Lucas. If the term ‘Nouvelle Vague’ hadn’t appear yet, one can say that the ideas were those developed later on in ‘les  Cahiers  du Cinéma’. Those years were the ones of the rehabilitation of film-makers such as Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock.

At the beginning of the 60’s, films made by young directors who came from different geographical backgrounds appeared on the screens. A ‘Nouveau cinéma’ came to light simultaneously in several countries. If the Cinémathèque was a temple dedicated to cinema, the Latin Quarter was a high place for cinema-going public. It still is. With its high schools, its universities and ‘Grandes Ecoles’, there is a concentration of  students that characterizes it.  Numerous are the testimonies of film-makers or critics who recall their years of initiation in this area spreading over the 5th and part of the 6th.

The 68 events took place in la Sorbonne and its surrounding, they inspired several film-makers. Almost 40 years later Bertolucci in ‘the Dreamers’ (2003) and Philippe Garrel in ‘Les Amants réguliers » (2005) gave their distanced vision of this epoch. In 1972 Jean Eustache made ‘la Maman et la Putain’, a movie shot mainly indoor and in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafés for the outdoor scenes, already evoking this « no man’s time between the ghosts of a past generation and the blurred shadows of a future hard to foresee » (2) where Jean-Pierre Léaud evolved, an actor linked for a long time to the Nouvelle Vague and more particularly to François Truffaut who hired him in five movies, playing the character of Antoine Doinel that revealed the actor, aged 14 then, in ‘les 400 coups’. Jean-Luc Godard gave him several parts, among others in ‘la Chinoise’ and ‘Week-end’ that anticipated the 68 events.

If it is difficult now to find tracks of the Ciné-Club of the Latin Quarter, it is here that today most of the cinemas classified ‘Art et Essai’ are located, a status recognized in 1959 by André Malraux, minister of Culture then. Cinemas that have inherited more or less of the spirit of those years…

Le Champollion : at the corner of the rue des Ecoles and the street after which the movie theater was named, after having very nearly turned into a trendy clothes boutique, the Champollion was classified Historical Monument in 2000. The hall on the ground floor has an unusual projection system. A new cabin having been installed above the screen after a fire destroyed the projection room in 1941, a periscope device was set up that brought the image to a mirror put at the background which in its turn sent back the image to the screen. As for the basement hall it is its starry ceiling, made with optical fibers, that makes it noteworthy.

Walking the rue Champollion up to the Place de la Sorbonne, you successively come across Le Reflet Médicis (former Ciné-Reflet created in 1968) which has a hall named after louis Jouvet who directed and played the role of Knock both in a play and in a movie, and La Filmothèque du Qartier Latin. In this small part at the end of the street formally were the theaters ‘Les Noctambules’ and ‘Quartier Latin’ where in 1947 Gérard Philippe performed in a George Vitaly production the part of the poet in the « Epiphanies » by Henri Pichette ..

Created in 1968, le Reflet Médicis is part of an independent network (Les Ecrans de Paris) which includes two other prestigious movie theaters : l’Escurial and l’Arlequin.

L’Escurial : one of the most beautiful Parisian cinema with its big curved screen in the retro style Panorama hall. Allowing to get into the second hall – formerly the upper room of the cinema – the stairs covered with mirrors evoke the unforgettable final scene of  « La Dame de Shanghaï » starring the magnificent Rita Hayworth directed and accompanied by the brilliant Orson Welles.

L’Arlequin doesn’t lack of charm with its Art Deco remnants and its bar in the basement. This cinema, owned once by  film-maker Jacques Tati, was known during many years as ‘the Cosmos’. Its programming included then exclusively Russian movies. The famous France 2 anchor Claude-Jean Philippe has been animating for years now each sunday morning his Ciné-club with same enthusiasm.

A former dance hall – « Le Nox » – converted into the small ‘Théâtre Latin’, La filmothèque du Quartier Latin, nicknamed ‘la filmo’ by its regulars, has two halls : a red one dedicated to the everlasting Marilyn Monroe, a blue one  to the sparkling Audrey Hepburn. The programming of films that have for a long time remained unreleased such as the first Martin Scorcese feature-lenght movie « Who’s knocking at my door? », classics in new copies and rare films coming from all over the world and showed exclusively there, made of this local cinema a small  »Musée du Cinéma’.

On the other side of Place de la Sorbonne rue Cujas is l’Accatone, former studio Cujas, installed as soon as 1957 in the premises of the ‘Gipsy’ cabaret where Edith Piaf performed. This theater adopted a new name in tribute to Pier Paulo Pasolini by borrowing the title of his first cinematographic work; it was brought back by Serge Lebovici, producer and publisher of  » Editions Champ Libre » (1969) in order to show exclusively his friend Guy Debord films; the latter is another representative figure of the 60’s, known for his scathing critic of ‘La société du Spectacle’ and whose first movie « Hurlements en faveur de Sade » made a scandal when it was programmed by Eric Rohmer in the Cine-Club of the Latin Quarter in 1952. Guy Debord movies were programmed non-stop until 1984, date of the assassination of Lebovici.

Retracing your path, close to the imposing monument from which it took its name since its latest restoration, you will find Le Cinéma du Panthéon and its tea-room upstairs ‘decorated by Catherine Deneuve herself’… One of the oldest cinemas in Paris (1907) which was during 60 years the property of Pierre Braunberger (talent scout for the Nouvelle Vague) and a haunt for a mature cinema-going public.  Here Jean Douchet , a former critic in ‘Les Cahiers du Cinéma’, was given carte blanche. As he’s been doing it for years he comes to share his vision and love for cinema at the cinémathèque française to which he is still very attached.

If you keep on walking towards rue Saint-Jacques, you will reach rue des Ursulines where the Studio des Ursulines is located. This cinema created by actors Myrga and Armand Tallier who joined the birth of the Art & Essai movement as soon as the 50’s played avant-garde silent movies. André Breton, Man Ray, Fernand Léger were seen among the public that came to attend the first showing on the 21st of January 1926. Two years later a scandal occurred during the première of the film ‘La coquille et le clergyman’, a scenario written by Antonin Artaud and directed by Germaine Dulac. The projection was stopped as a result of the public and the surrealists (André Breton and louis Aragon were the leaders) protests. A few weeks later the film was reprogrammed by Armand Tallier who refused to call the police.

On the other side of boulevard Saint-Michel near the Luxembourg garden is the cinema Les Trois Luxembourgs. There took place the ‘Etats Généraux du cinéma’ during the May 68 events. Those three halls became later part of the Olympic network directed by Frédéric Mitterand, the current Minister of Culture. The network had a dozen of cinemas which were all sold in 1986 due to bad management. Open in 1971, l’Entrepôt was the first one. The present Saint-Germain, Le Balzac were part of it too. American, Egyptian films were billed…and stars to whom the anchorman of the TV program « Etoiles et Toiles »  continued to pay homage. He is among the first ones to distribute the works of Bergman, Kurosawa, Ozu…He programmed Pier Paulo Pasolini and Marguerite Duras and admitted their influence over him as the author of ‘Lettres d’amour en Somalie’.

As you walk towards the river, right at the beginning of the street that links the Place Saint-Michel to the Place de l’Odéon is the Saint-André des Arts. It was directed for 40 years (1971-2010, year of his death) by Roger Diamantis who refused advertisement in his cinema. On the Place Saint-Michel, on the opposite side, is L’Espace Saint-Michel, unfortunately known for  a bomb attack committed during the projection of Martin Scorcese film ‘La tentation du Christ’.  As for the Studio Galande, located between the Place Saint-Michel and the rue Saint-Jacques, its festive projections of ‘the Horror Picture Show’ (the audience in costume, rice battles, laughters and so on..)make of it a mythical cinema.

Finally you won’t have to walk much to find in the rue des Ecoles one of the last cinema of the  Action group; one of the group, Action Christine, is situated around Place de l’Odeon. Those cinemas are attended by the ones that Hollywood and its legendary actors still make them dream. The Grand Action at the very beginning of rue des Ecoles  is close to the university Jussieu and even closer to the Paradis Latin, Paris oldest Cabaret. Between the Residence Henri IV and the hotel Saint-Jacques l’Action Ecoles, recently renamed Le Desperado, has just been bought by the film-maker Jean-Pierre Mocky who, during ten years, run one of the few cinemas in the 10th district Le Brady boulevard de Strasbourg.

If you look at your guide of entertainments under the movies rubric, you may find among the rerun the Stanley Donen’s famous detective comedy « Charade ». Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant play hide and seek in Paris. Some scenes were shot at the hotel Saint-Jacques. This is not a legend!

(1) Nowadays it is in the Bercy district that it displays its collection. More than a hundred films are shown monthly.

(2)Jean-Luc Lacuve www.cineclubdecaen.com

(3) Eric Rohmer was the chief editor from 1957 to 1962