[CLOSED] Le Coquelin

The Coquelin opened in 1959 and was situated in Boulogne's rue Victor Hugo, just along from the Kursaal.  During the following decades, Boulogne's cinemas would proceed to cut each other's throats, and the Coquelin was one of several theatres snidely purchased (and subsequently closed) by the owners of the Stars cinema in the early 1980s.  However, the opportunists who hoovered up Boulogne's silver screens would get theirs, after a fashion, when the Gaumont Coquelles opened just over a decade later; as a wise Jedi once said, there's always a bigger fish.  The legendary Johnny Hallyday, having previously played concerts in Boulogne in 1961 and 1963, performed at the Coquelin in 1966, and he enjoyed quite a love affair with the city, returning for further shows in 1977 and 1990.  

The Coquelin outlived the Kursaal by a few years, and at one point the cinema was owned by the Arcades chain that would go on to acquire Calais' Alhambra.  However, the Coquelin closed its doors for good in 1986 and, as with its near neighbour, demolition followed before the site was redeveloped into a residential block with a ground floor retail space (as seen in the above photo).  There's a rather nice legacy in that, following the cinema's closure, the Coquelin's projectors were sent down to Cannes, where they were used in the world-famous festival for many years.

[CLOSED] Le Kursaal

One of the first dedicated cinemas in Boulogne, the Kursaal opened in 1911 and was sited immediately next to the Crédit Lyonnais bank in rue Victor Hugo.  During the following decades, Boulogne's cinemas -- at one time, the city had five on the go at once, the others being the Coquelin, the Lumière, the Coliseum and the magnificently-named Vog -- would proceed to cut each other's throats, and the Kursaal was one of several cinemas snidely purchased (and subsequently closed) by the owners of the Stars cinema in the early 1980s.  However, these opportunists would get theirs, after a fashion, when the Gaumont Coquelles opened just over a decade later; as a wise Jedi once said, there's always a bigger fish.  

The legendary Johnny Hallyday played a show at the Kursaal in 1961, and he went on to enjoy quite a love affair with Boulogne, returning to the city for further shows in 1963, 1966, 1977 and 1990.  The Kursaal closed in 1982 and was knocked down in 1985, with its replacement taking the form of a mainly residential block which also contains a ground floor retail space (currently home to a Zara, as seen in the above photo).  While the cinema may be long gone, the bank next door is still in operation, and it's housed in a most impressive building.

[CLOSED] Cinéma Louis Daquin

The Daquin was housed in a building in what was (and still is) the National School of Music, on Calais' rue du 11 Novembre.  I'd been visiting Calais for years before discovering this side street, which isn't one you'd typically venture along during a day trip to the town.  The Daquin, which opened in 1981, basically showed art-house films, and such programming provided an alternative to the more commercial fare offered by the Alhambra (in its first guise, before it was renamed the Arcades), which is situated just around the corner.  The films at the Daquin played on a large screen in the Erik Satie room, and performances at the venue alternated between films and concerts.  

The opening of the 12-screen Gaumont in the mid-90s saw the Daquin slash its number of screenings, and the cinema closed down in the summer of 2000 (the Arcades' closure swiftly followed, for similar reasons).  Still, the Daquin was open for nearly two decades, which is quite impressive considering that it always had some pretty fierce competition.  The building's exterior has undergone some remodelling since the cinema closed, but it's still very recognisable as the venue that once provided some welcome alternative programming for Calaisiens.  The current Alhambra, with its inventive mix of art-house and mainstream cinema, effectively fulfils the roles of both the previous Alhambra/Arcades and the Daquin.

[CLOSED] Le Casino

The expansive Nausicaá aquarium (pictured above) now stands on the site which once hosted Boulogne's first postwar casino, which in turn housed a cinema for a few short years.  Prior to WW2, Boulogne was the home of one of the most beautiful casinos in France but it, like virtually everything in and around the port, was destroyed in the bombardment of the war.  Once the conflict ended, the mass rebuilding of Boulogne commenced and the replacement casino, which was situated not far from where its more ornate predecessor had once stood, was completed in the late 1950s.  

The new casino had been in operation for just a few years when it was used, fairly prominently, as one of the locations in Alain Resnais' Muriel, or The Time of Return, which was released in 1963; in the same year, Johnny Hallyday played a concert at the venue.  Nearly a decade on from Resnais' masterpiece, a cinema was established inside the casino, but the venture was short-lived; back then, there was plenty of competition in Boulogne -- much of it located in the more accessible town centre -- and this was reflected in the beachfront cinema's sparse attendances.  The casino itself operated for a good many years following the closure of the cinema, before the entire building was razed in the late 1980s so that work could begin on Europe's largest aquarium, which opened in 1991.