Grand Rex
1 Boulevard Poissonniere,
Paris
75002
1 Boulevard Poissonniere,
Paris
75002
9 people
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There is NOTHING wrong with the area where the Grand Rex is! It is part of the Grands Boulevards where people go to spend evenings.
Exterior photos of Le Grand Rex from July 2012.
Here’s something interesting from the April 10, 1932, issue of The Film Daily:
If Eberson had little to do with designing this theater other than to inspire its actual architect, why did he send his chief draftsman off to Paris to oversee its completion? It sounds like more of a collaboration to me. The article about Bluysen on French Wikipedia says he designed “Cinéma Le Grand Rex, à Paris (1932), en collaboration avec l'ingénieur John Eberson.” Even acting as engineer, Eberson would probably have had considerable input on the design of the building.The Rex Tour is one of the most awful I have ever experienced in all my tour visits around the world. It provides absolutely no access to the theatre itself, not even a stroll thru the lobby area.
You don’t see the auditorium, all you get is a dreadful very cheap Disney like interactive load of rubbish!
A total waste of €10. If my French was any better I would have asked for management and demanded a refund.
typically on the day i visited the Rex tower was covered in scaffolding for renovation work on the exterior
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3951852834/
so i bought a postcard showing it at its artistic best
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3951895912/
the side door entry to the “Les Etoiles du Rex” with its great deco sign
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3951077205/
and the main downstairs lobby and paybox
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3951083451/
“ There is an additional attraction called "Les Etoiles du Rex”, looking like a Euro Disney attraction, which takes you on a ‘self conducted’ backstage tour…"
While this tour is somewhat geared to the teenage kicks and thrills market, it is still worth doing.This attraction embraces some history, film clips, mock participation in special effects etc. It does not visit the theatre auditorium at all, but you do have an all too brief view of it, backward from the glass walled lift that rises from behind the stage to the attraction level which sems to be mainly in the ceiling void. There is no view of the stage or proscenium arch. There is also a display of projection equipment in a box type location, – though this is of course now placed at the “wrong” end of the cinema.
A vintage postcard view of the Atmospheric style auditorium:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevp/2934649407/
This is still a great place to see an “event” movie whether on the full screen or “grand large” with the screen dropping down onto the proscenium. When the lights are finally dimmed, you can still make out some of the features of the balconies and are really transported somewhere. Saw Miami Vice and Apocalypto there and the experience was not dissimilar to seeing a great action or blaxploitation picture in the 70s or 80s in say the Criterion or Rivoli. No the neighborhood isn’t one of Paris' best but it is still Paris.
Regret having missed Neil Young live there but bless the French for landmarking it
Le Gran Rex was requisitioned by the German’s during World War II and operated as a German soldier’s cinema.
In 1996, I saw Mission Impossible in the huge auditorium with the huge screen lowering in front of the proscenium. This was a showing when the movie was new, and in English. The place was packed. The French rushed in for seats. I ended up at the top of the balcony, but it didn’t matter. The auditorium is one of the best anywhere to see a movie.
Website about it!
http://www.silverscreens.com/rex_en.html
Official: http://www.legrandrex.com/
Exterior tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropol2/117271012/
Auditorium- Now that’s a movie theater!
View link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djou/518173200/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhino75/44435586/
The Rex opened on 8th December 1932.
Does anyone know the year that this theater opened?
Le Grand Rex photographed recently at night:
http://flickr.com/photos/43633094@N00/117271012/
I am wondering whether John Eberson did anything for this theatre except inspire the architect.I have found an article which states that the theatre was designed by the architect Auguste Bluysen and the decorator was Maurice Dufrene.
Yeah, this is a real movie palace. I caught “Apocalypse Now Redux” the one and only time I patronized this theatre. A branch of the Cinemateque is nearbye, but most of the films in this part of Paris screen dubbed, as opposed to sub-titled, films.