| Abstract: | Paris, more than any other city on earth, offers a feast for cinema-goers. Cinema's place among the arts is special and far superior to that found anywhere else. The sheer number and variety of theatres dedicated to the diversity of the cinematic art and its pleasures, ensure an enduring festive spirit. Cineastes and cinéphiles from the world over gather in Paris to indulge their appetites for film. Global cinema lives in the city's screening rooms. This book delights in revealing some of the fascinating details of this life, for to celebrate the film theatres of Paris is to celebrate film culture itself. Conceived by film scholar Dina Iordanova and film critic and author Jean-Michel Frodon, known here, respectively, as the privileged outsider and the cognisant insider, Cinemas of Paris is a compendium of writings by specialists in both film and the city. Lavishly illustrated tales are told of the unique places where film is screened, chiefly the independent theatres with their often idiosyncratic backgrounds (and occasionally a few ghosts), but also about the city's unique cultural institutions and its ubiquitous multiplexes. And there are stories, too, of the men and the women who have made these places strongholds of cinematic discovery and delight, and who continue to keep cinema alive. The 372 pages of the book feature contributions by international academics Sue Harris, William Brown, Daniel Fairfax, Michael Gott, Frances Guerin, Renaud Olivero, Ana Grgic, Flora Lichaa, and Yoana Pavlova, as well as by a number of world-renowned directors such as Amos Gitai, Gaston Kabore, Naomi Kawase, Jia Zhangke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Cristian Mungiu, Walter Salles, Gus Van Sant, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It depicts and explains the complete system that allows such a diversity. The book includes essays on a variety of cinematic institutions, including majors (UGC, Gaumont, Pathé), minimajors (MK2), prominent cultural venues (Cinémathèque Française, Forum des Images, Centre Pompidou), clusters of cinemas (Odéon Cinemas, les cinemas Action), essays on a wide selection of 35 unique cinemas (from L'Arlequin to Les Ursulines, from Luminor to Etoile Lilas, from Le Grand Rex to Le Louxor...). And much more. |
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