Take a nostalgia trip into the mythic neighbourhood cinemas of the Parisian past, with their steady stream of exploitation films, westerns, sword and sandals and action films, plus a few juicy erotic flicks thrown in.
Relive as well their fun and bizarre intermission acts: live martial-arts demos, dog acts, burlesque and so forth, you get the drift. Even better, movie quizzes and the candy girls are back.
Season 2 hostilities kick off under the peace-loving banner of “knock his block off” on 27 June, with a Bruce Lee-Chuck Morris head bash in The Way of the Dragon, followed by Bloodsport, an apocalyptic combat at the Roman Colosseum.
In palatial dilapidated cinemas, with their colonnades and balconies, and occasionally in much smaller and far less attractive ones as well, screenings were based on a double-feature model that combined a new film with an older one. Films were dubbed in French. Some cinemas provided live-act entertainment, such as striptease shows, or dog and magic acts. The public were mostly regulars, who always laid claim to the same seat and who had no qualms about sounding off on the spot if the projection quality was not up to par, which was often the case.
Click here to see our last Grindhouse cinema season.