Le Grand Rex

Unfortunately a concert pushed films to the smaller cinemas.. Cinema 2 still very nice, old seats, nice medium sized screen. Will try the main venue later this week. Attractive exterior.

Hands down, the best place to see a movie in Paris that I've been to so far. If you're in the grande salle, you have a starry night above you, amazing decoration around you, and tons of room as it is a huge huge huge space.

The screen they pull down is humongous, so sit somewhere in the middle or your eyes will be switching back and forth. ;)

You can order tickets online beforehand, around 11 euros/adult.

The appropriately-named Grand Rex is a lot of things. Here at 1 Poissoniere it's a grand old theatre, holding a couple of thousand seats for watching concerts. It's also got screens for films. Just a few steps down the road, at number 5, there's also a nightclub (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/80658-Rex-Club-Paris) . And a little farther down is a bar (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/preview/fr-796384-rex-bar-le-paris) .


But the theatre is beautiful. Holding about 3000 people in several steep tiers, it's plush, old, and ornate. North African frescos cover both side walls. The ceiling, high above, is deep azure with a few starry pinpricks of light. The stage looks like thousands of combined years of struggling showbiz have strode across them. It's old, but that feels right.


There are escalators to take you to the upper levels, and bars on each level.


I've just come back from seeing Tom Waits play the Grand Rex, so perhaps I'm still feeling the effects. But I get the feeling that this rich, velvet, burgundy old hall gives a little magic to whomever plays there.

One of the best known and loved in Paris, the Rex is truly a Deco palace with chandeliers, sumptuous armchairs and even faux castles (really). When you visit, you must walk up to the screen and look back into the huge theatre itself. With so many seats to fill, the program is necessarily mainstream and always VF. This is the place to go to watch a home-grown action-adventure film (surely a new Banlieue 13 is due out soon!)