RUE CHAMPOLLION, 75005 PARIS
Cold fact: Paris has more movies showing at any one time than any other city in the world. Cinema addicts come to Paris just to go to the movies! That may be because of the proliferation of tiny, independent cinemas.
Once upon a time…
There was a mythical place, between the Sorbonne and Notre Dame, where cinephiles reunite.
It’s an alley that welcomes some (if not most) of the greatest independent cinemas in Paris (if not the world). Three to be exact.
LE CHAMPO – ESPACE JAQUES-TATI
This arthouse cinema opened in 1938. Today, the two main screens replace what was once a bookshop and later a cabaret theatre. Home of important figures in the French cinema history, also described by Francois Truffaut as his “second university”.
The upstairs screen has a curious projection system: the projector is situated above the screen and depends on a periscope and a mirror at the rear of the theatre.
The program is quite vast and qualitative. Anything from German expressionism, Italian neorealism, dogma 95, film noir, new Hollywood, new wave, no wave, I’d say any sort of wave.
Also, there is a slightly shy guy with glasses at the box-office, working alongside with a woman who seems to be his mother (she’s in charge of checking the tickets at the screen’s entrance). I surprised them a few times commenting on how people leave the auditorium, guessing, as a game, if they’ve been moved by the film or not, if so in which way, if they are a comedy or drama types. They are so adorable I never dared to speak with them, I feel it would ruin the fun.
REFLET MEDICIS
Opened in 1964; it shows all kind of classics and indie movies but with particular attention to international releases of difficult Programmation (less than 10 copies) as well as hosting small film festivals from all around.
(They also have their own monthly magazine).
There’s a wooden bench just outside the door, which is a magnet for absent-minded curiously dressed old people I’d love to photograph.
FILMOTHEQUE DU QUARTIER LATIN
Opened in 1966; this two screens cinema (screen Marilyn in red and screen Audrey in blue) is also the house of international festivals, retrospectives and restored classics with shameless favouritism for Italian cinema (anything from neorealism, Commedia all'Italiana, Giallo to spaghetti western).
It’s illegal how cosy the velvet seats are in the Audrey screen. Just the other night I was there to watch a funny Alberto Sordi movie, there was this woman, sitting next to me, who could not stop giggling. I feared the worse, for her.
If only I could light in a cigarette, I would love these cinemas a little bit more.
