Paris Theater
4 W. 58th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
4 W. 58th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
59 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 406 comments
Yes! I thought it was lousy for a roadshow film(I know why should I care?) that there wasn’t the art work but just the lettering. By the way did you get the souvenir program from there? I know there was one but they weren’t selling it at my performance. I’ve seen it on ebay or maybe someone posted it in the Criterion photo section.
Also if you pull up images Times Square 1970s you will see it in one of the images. Though to be honest someone stuck it in the images for the 60s which is where I saw it again all these decades later. Sadly the last roadshow film at that most prestigious of Times Square theaters which was a short while later to become an exploitation house before being sliced up into a slew of shoebox theaters. Superman looked great there before the theater ended up on the chopping block. Too bad its first very successful run was at the Astor Plaza.
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to vindanpar- I saw Nicholas and Alexandra twice during its roadshow run a the Criterion. its one of my favorite large scale historical dramas. the Blu-ray disc is !!! WOW !!! but for the life of me I can’t remember what the marquee looked like. are you saying during the entire roadshow run the marquee just had block letters and never any glass plates with art work?
I should mention the Criterion with Nich and Alex had no film artwork on any side except for the lettering itself. Yet I believe the Newman Judge Roy Bean did on all sides from what I remember. Or was it McCabe and Mrs Miller? I wish I had taken photos of all of this.
I didn’t think of it but you’re right. Odd for the time. But I was surprised that the front of the marquee for WSS at the Rivoli did not have the film’s artwork but the regular frozen plastic. Also Nich and Alex at the Criterion which disappointed me. My Fair Lady when it was revived at the theater in ‘71 nicely had the films artwork which was good to see though not as elaborate as in '64.
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on pg.1 of the photo section is a photo of the theater beginning of 1969 when R&J was still playing. what surprised me was the marquee had just block letters rather than the usual glass plate with the film’s art work.
Harris did the L of A restoration that was shown at the Paris. Having seen 70mm classics including the most recent restoration of L of A at the Museum of the Museum of the Moving Image, I would say the Paris experience would’ve been fine. True, not an enormous screen, but plenty large enough. I enjoyed “Hamlet” in 70mm at the Paris when it was shown there.
Who did this restoration? Was it Harris? If not what did he think of it if he made any comment? Also considering size the Museum’s screen wasn’t the image small?
I answered this L of A a few questions above.
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just out of curiosity when did the Paris run the restoration pf LOA?
Am upset that this closed, despite it feeling inevitable. Saw many great films here but my most-cherished memory was the recent 4K restoration of Howard’s End. It was so beautiful. Another real loss for the cinephile community.
I saw the 4 digital restoration on a movie screen- it looks great. No matter what disc version you have, it is not the same as looking at 70mm film. If it is shown again somewhere….
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to Howard B.–
the Blu-ray disc I have of LOA which is !!! WOW !!! in both picture and sound was mastered from a 4K restoration. so do I have a Blu-ray disc of the restoration to which you referred?
What I saw, was that the original colors were restored. I wrote this in 2017 for the 70mm newsletter after seeing a brand new 70mm print (at the Museum of the Moving Image) made from the 2012 restoration of Lawrence of Arabia:
Visually, this 70mm new print was astonishingly beautiful. The sharp 70mm resolution and the 70mm details were stunning. The restored colors were truly vibrant. The awesome 1989 restoration had looked good, with a beige colored dessert, but that same desert was often glowing in orange now in this restoration. Every frame of the movie popped in glorious color and detail. The sound was excellent. Surround sound was strong, from the “echo chamber” in the mountain valley to battle scenes. This screening of this epic film was exhilarating.
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hey you learn something new everyday. what exactly is the difference between the 1989 Katz/Harris restoration that played he Ziegfeld and the 2012 one you mentioned?
Sept 1997 was the Lawrence of Arabia 70mm, thanks to Al Alvarez earlier posting- I wish Al would post from the year 2000 to now. The Harris restoration was originally shown in 1989 at the Ziegfeld. The most recent restoration in 70mm dates to 2012 & is glorious!
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the Paris had a 70MM showing of the restored Lawrence of
Arabia? when ? I thought the Ziegfeld ran the 70MM release
of the Katz/Harris restoration of LOA?
To be accurate “Lawrence of Arabia” was not a Hollywood classic, it was a United Kingdom classic.
August 29, 2019 Spectrum News NY1 article has a video & a wonderful recollection! (I myself was lucky enough to have seen Hamlet in 70mm at the Paris, and wish I would have the chance to see L of A in 70mm there)
“The Paris Theatre was the last single screen, jewel box movie theater in Manhattan. It had a balcony, it had a purple curtain that opened up with the little ripple as the light of the projector hit it,” said Joseph Fusco, former Paris Theater manager. Fusco managed the Paris from 1997 to 2000. He shared pictures of the interior of the 581 seat theater with NY1, even a program from its opening night in 1948.His favorite memory? The re-running of a true Hollywood classic film.“We showed the restored 70 millimeter print of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ which in this room was absolutely stunning and we had lines down to Sixth Avenue everyday,"
February 21, 1969 photo added credit Walter Leporati. Courtesy 70s/80s New York City Facebook page.
The Jewish Voice 9-1-19 article “iconic Paris Theatre in NYC Closes Its Doors After Seven Decades” finished with “The theater has been a destination for many of the city’s intellectuals and movie connoisseurs, as motion pictures by directors including Federico Fellini and Franco Zeffirelli have been shown.”
Seth, I’ve seen movies at London’s Gate Notting Hill & agree it is a wonderful “cinema treasure.” Thanks for mentioning the 45% decrease article, which I just read. I also saw a Twitter feed of comments to the NYTimes Paris article with, again, many people upset at the theater’s closing and also like me upset at the article, some of those posting blaming backbiting in the NY arts community for the negative quotes. Last week, there were many other articles online about the Paris closing, many which I agreed more with. I loved the Town & Country article which included a photo of “Romeo & Juliet” on the marquee & many great quotes- here’s a couple- “It didn’t matter what decade we were in,” recalls Bryan Bantry, an entertainment industry polymath. Bantry’s offices were in a penthouse above the Paris for two decades, and he frequently rented it out for screenings. “Real New Yorkers who loved cinema” were always keen to see the single-screen theater’s latest. (also) In addition to hosting many a New York film premiere and serving up expertly-curated programming, the Paris was a center of gravity for a certain set. “It was a happy place for many people, and we’re always looking for happy places,” Bantry says. He describes the theater’s balcony, which boasted great sight lines; people in the know, he says, always went straight up the stairs. (from Howard- after my 1st several films there, I too, always sat in the balcony!)
Well said Howard…The Paris like the Gate Notting Hill in London (now over 100 years old) is one of those theatres that appeals to people who don’t go to other cinemas but enjoy the diversity of programming. Distributors will miss it for the exposure that there movies had and film lovers will miss it. The other article in today’s NYT is that speciality box office is down 45% this year and filmmakers will want someplace to show their films beyond streaming We live in hope!
Today’s NY Times article has one wonderful quote: “That’s terrible,” said Duncan Hannah, a painter who loved the theater on 58th Street by Fifth Avenue for the French movies and the quality of New York gossip you could overhear in the plush seats.
“It looked like the fancy cinema on an old ocean liner,” Mr. Hannah said. “I crossed the Atlantic to France when I was 14, in 1967, and they had a cinema that looked like the Paris.”
Unfortunately, much of the rest of the focus of that one article is by people questioning when we who loved the Paris actually last saw a movie there? Well, I not only saw Pavarotti there this year, but also enjoyed Never Look Away and Sunset, both subtitled foreign films. Last year, I saw Mary Queen of Scotts, Colette, Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti, and Lean on Pete, in 2017: Victoria and Abdul, Paris Can Wait, Their Finest, and so forth, I saw movies every year for a quarter of a century! I saw my 1st movie at the Paris in 1989 (Crusoe) then in 1995 resuming visits to the Paris (as I don’t live in NYC but in Philly) to see the movie Jefferson in Paris, I saw movies every single year, for a total of 85 movies seen at the wonderful Paris. And, despite the snarky focus of the NY Times, I read the comments of actual film goers online, and understand there were many others who saw every movie or many movies at the Paris. I met some in person while attending movies there & know others here who have. Often those movies that I saw at the Paris were my favorite movies of the year.
Village East probably in the best position to survive for a while – not that I know anything about it’s profitability. I’m just thinking in terms of having a historic theater with its original auditorium still intact, while having the support of 6 other auditoriums within the facility to compete with today’s multiplexes. Also has the advantage of being in an area of Manhattan where geological conditions do not lend themselves to the development of high rise towers. I would imagine the locals also reasonably support the theater.
Posters here need to remember (and realize when comments are deleted) that this website is not about politics or matters that stray from discussing the movie theaters. If the Paris is gutted or demolished for higher economic returns, that would be a tragic loss of a wonderful, movie theater that properly showed films, and a theater that is a cultural resource for New York. I am heartbroken by its possible loss, as are many other people from comments I read at news stories online of its closing. We must enjoy other historic movie theaters while they last, such as City Cinemas Village East and City Cinemas 1,2,3. I can’t quickly think of other commercial (daily movies, for profit) movie theaters in Manhattan that are historic? other than 42nd St’s AMC Empire using a historic theater as a lobby.