Yup, hurray, hallelujah! You can shout for joy and celebrate the news with your finest chauvinistic accent: six of the best cinemas in the world are in France – four of which are in the city of Paris alone. In any case, this is what reveals our giga-mega ranking made with our colleagues from Time Out, whose newsrooms are located all over the world (New York, Melbourne, Hong-Kong, Barcelona or even the parent company, London). The best ranked of the Franchouillard cinés? The Grand Rex, which climbs to second place in the standings.
The reason, in the words of the editor of Time Out Paris, Houssine Bouchama? “More than a cinema or an auditorium, Le Grand Rex is an institution of the capital (…) The magnificent establishment imagined by Auguste Bluysen, and endowed with the title of historic monument since 1981, frankly looks great with its gigantic facade art-deco and its roof illuminating the streets day and night. On the cinema side, its seven theaters, one of which can accommodate 2,400 people, have offered a number of premieres since its creation, ranging from the legendary Les Oiseaux by Alfred Hitchcock to Star Wars. All you have to do is collapse on the huge leather armchairs on the mezzanine or on the seats on the second balcony, and enjoy one of the largest screens in Europe. “
Also well ranked in this top 50? Le Champo (12th place), proudly installed at the corner of rue des Ecoles and rue Champollion, and which alone makes the reputation of the Latin Quarter cinephile. Still according to Houssine Bouchama: “Frequented by the students of the Sorbonne, the Champo owes its fame not only to François Truffaut, obsessive spectator of the room, but also to its former owner Roger Joly. To remedy the heavy damage of a fire in the projection booth, it installs a periscope above the screen. The image is thus returned to a first then a second mirror to finally be projected in front of the public. The ‘retro-reflex’ system was born, to the delight of small movie theaters. Today, the Champo remains the place of choice for film lovers in search of classics and tourists in search of Parisian romance. Who can admire the illuminated fiber optic silhouette of director Jacques Tati, who has been sitting in the hall since 1989. “
Finally, not too badly classified either, we find the Studio 28 (27e place), this legendary room which has seen living legends and great classics of the seventh art parade through its dark rooms, and which lifts its curtain in 1928 on Abel Gance’s avant-garde masterpiece, Napoleon. Then a little further, The Pantheon Cinema, which hides the famous room where Jean-Paul Sartre had his first cinematographic emotions and where (in normal times) 300 spectators come every evening to applaud the crème de la crème of European cinema.
Finally, it should be noted in the rest of France that the Odyssey (Strasbourg) and Le Colisée (Carcassonne) squat respectively 29th and 34th place. And that number 1 is in Amsterdam: the Pathé Tuschinski.
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