CINEMAS: A French Heritage

Beautiful, haunting photographs of abandoned cinemas around the world. Simon Edelstein, whether in search of decaying or completely abandoned historic cinemas, or exploring lovingly restored or spectacular contemporary buildings, has scoured the roads of France for over 10 years, in cites and countryside, to seek out this exceptional heritage. 200 very beautiful colour photos of cinemas some in operation, others closed, all nostalgic. Here are names like Pathé Valse Cinema housed in a former measuring instrument factory dating from the end of the 19th century, Les Variétés, Rex, Le Royal, Vox, Le Bourbons abandoned and decrepit 'oozing misery through their entrails' which don't want to be buried. Arranged by region from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alps, through Burgundy-Franche-Comté and so on, here are cracked seats in a cinema which replaced a church and still has a fantastic Art Deco sign, a tiny 15 seat cinema in an old forge called Le Petit Rex, and photographs from interiors of the Vierzon with its piles of furniture and projectors, the Strasbourg Hollywood-style Vox with its sparkling neon lights and concrete façade to the Tivoli and Normandy cinemas, Plazas and Renoirs, Gaumont to not-so-majestic multiplexes which devoured each other in an over-developed market. Page after page of superb colour photography and short captions, we are taken to cinema paradise and beyond. 284 pages, 23 x 29.5 cm.
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