Grindhouse Cinema

Spectre Films and the Star cinemas bring you “Grindhouse Cinema” – a new cinematic experience, whose first edition will consist of four fun-packed evenings, running from May to November of this year.

Double-feature genre films … live-act entertainment

The Grindhouse Cinema series could best be described as a revival film club inspired by the French cinéma de quartier, or local French cinemas specialised in exploitation films. There will be double-feature genre films, boasting a wide selection of exploitation films, including westerns, horror, action and martial-art films, with a few juicy erotic films and sword and sandal “epics” thrown in.

At intermission, expect pure vintage – live-act entertainment such as quizzes, dog acts, defiant demonstrations of martial arts and spicey burlesque. And ever reminiscent of the good old days, the candy girl will be back, roaming the aisles with refreshments for sale.

Here’s what’s in store for you this year

The 2023 first edition will focus on famous actor or character duos in benchmark films. Each of this season’s four evenings will be specifically themed, kicking off with the action-film duos, followed by spaghetti westerns, martial arts and slashers.

Season 1– Mythic figures of genre cinema in versus mode

Thursday 11 May: Stallone vs Schwarzy
Thursday 8 June: Ringo vs Sabata
Thursday 19 October: Jason vs Freddy
Thursday 30 November: Sarah Connor vs Ellen Ripley

2023 programme:

Stallone vs Schwarzy Night

Ringo vs Sabata Night

A2_CYCLE_VS_STAR_FreddyJasonHD (sans trait de coupe)

Jason vs Freddy Night

SARAH CONNOR vs ELLEN RIPLEY (900x1200px) - SITE

Sarah Connor vs Ellen Repley

Where: the Star St-Exupéry cinema, 18, rue du 22 novembre, in the Strasbourg city center

How much: €15 the entire evening, cinema reduction cards accepted

The Grindhouse cinemas – a brief history

Beginning in the 1930s, the local neighbourhood cinemas played a major role in the film industry. Unlike first-run cinemas, they showed previously released films at a reduced price, specialising in whatever kind of films were trending at the moment. For example, the El Dorado, the Far West and the Texas screened westerns. The Midi-Minuit began to show fantasy and erotic flicks. During the 1960s, the choice of films expanded. The Colorado and the Brady dropped westerns for horror and fantasy and the Styx, located in the Latin Quarter rather than outside of Paris, dipped into B movies.

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.