[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] Cinéma Crystal

I don't know how many times I walked past this fine building on Calais' Rue Royale before realising it used to be a cinema.  If you were to visit Calais as a foot passenger, you could walk to this building in around 15 minutes from when the passenger bus dumps you at the front of the ferry terminal.  Once you know of the Crystal's history, it's painfully obvious that this was once a movie palace; the exterior remains largely unchanged, with a "Casino" sign now in place of the one which once read "Cinema".  The Crystal was constructed in the 1950s, alongside countless other buildings which were put up as part of a massive rebuilding programme in the city following WW2; Calais was virtually razed to the ground during the war, although the magnificent 13th-century Tour du Guet -- a mere stone's throw from the Crystal -- somehow survived.

Sadly, Cinéma Crystal wasn't around for all that long, and by the 1970s the 600-seat establishment had closed down, with the building subsequently housing a casino which is still going strong -- meaning it's now been there for roughly twice as long as the cinema was.  It's a pity that the cinema's lifespan was relatively short, but I suppose by the 70s the market was changing -- as were tastes and fashions -- and the increasing popularity (and availability) of TV was also chipping away at the status of cinemas.  You're quite free to have a wander around inside, and it all feels quite grand.  While its current use may not be the one it was originally intended for, it's nonetheless heartening to think of how this building -- like so many in the city -- sprang from the rubble of 1945.

Cinéma Alhambra

Films: La fille coupée en deux (2007), Camille Claudel 1915 (2013), Aimer, boire et chanter (2014), Ma Loute (2016), Ivan Tsarévitch et la Princesse Changeante (2016), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Jeanne (2019)

Screens: 4  Ticket price: 7.50€

In the days when we first started going to France on a regular basis (the late 90s), I remember walking past this place when it was a functioning cinema, but not too long into our French sojourns it closed its doors.  I expect this had something to do with The Man (AKA Gaumont -- see post below) muscling into town and setting up shop in Cité Europe -- it figured that as that mall drew shoppers away, Magneto-style, from Calais town centre, then cinemagoers would go the same way.

Thankfully, a few years on and the cinema re-opened as the Alhambra (not sure what its name was before), a lovely 4-screen establishment that crams in a pile of good films thanks to some obviously quite talented programmers.  I seem to recall that the earlier, pre-Gaumont version of this cinema was a more commercial venture, and though I wouldn't like to bet on it, I got the feeling it was pretty much French-language stuff only.  The Alhambra, unlike The Man along the road, shows all films in their original languages (the exception being kids' films, which are dubbed into French if they aren't in it to begin with).  Which makes it a great place to catch the latest Woody Allen film in the event that you can't wait years for it to open in the Anglophone world (and by which time he'll probably have another film out in France).

It's not too often that we've stayed over in Calais and therefore we tend to have trouble fitting in a screening there, but for my birthday in 2007 we (meaning my wife) decided to make a weekend of it and booked a nice hotel with a friendly dog (read that however you want -- was the dog resident in the hotel, or did he help us make the booking?  I know which is the more tantalising).  It meant we had time for a fine meal and could also catch an evening screening of the new Claude Chabrol (RIP), one of my favourite directors.  I thought the film was great, and my mood was helped no end by the superb experience that is the Alhambra -- friendly box-office staff, fellow audience members who clearly mean business, and an atmospheric, comfortable interior.  And if the excitement of this place gets too much and you get caught short, you don't have to traipse for miles to find the toilets and subsequently miss a big chunk of the film, as they're actually situated inside the auditorium.  Nice.  Although, if nature does call, everyone knows what you've been doing.  And they'll strike up a chant to that effect.  In French.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Alhambra, and it's a pity that potential visits there rarely seem to work out timing-wise. It was great to see a Chabrol film on its initial release in a French cinema, and thankfully it was this one and not his next (sadly also his swansong), Bellamy -- which to me was the worst film he'd made in nigh on 20 years. 

Update:  In August 2012 the cinema decided to sell off all the film posters they'd had since, well, way back when.   This rather unique event merited a Calais excursion in itself, and a friend and I spent an afternoon combing through the endless, orderless piles in search of gems; hard work indeed, especially given that unfolding/re-folding most of these was a slightly tricky job as each tended to be the size of a football pitch.  As it turned out, gems weren't hard to come by and I even found one for the Chabrol I'd seen there, which made for a very nice touch.  I also managed to get a few posters for other films I'd seen in French cinemas -- how many can you spot in the gallery?

Update: In mid-2015 there was another poster sale; peruse the bounty here.

Update: May 2016 saw me visit the Alhambra and chalk up my 50th French cinema experience.  Of course, it's possible that I can't count and I'm still on fortysomething, but having gone through these posts multiple times I'm pretty sure I'm at the half-century mark.  Fittingly, this landmark figure was achieved via a great film (Bruno Dumont's Ma Loute) at a fine cinema.  I honestly can't see me getting another 50 in as it's taken 12 years to get to this point, so I may as well savour this moment...

Update: September 2019 -- more posters, y'all.

Update: October 2019 -- yet more posters.  I've now managed to get the cinema's poster for every film I've seen there.  But should the completist in me jeopardise this fragile status by seeing another film there, knowing that I'm not guaranteed to get hold of the poster?  Of course I should.

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Gaumont Coquelles (formerly Gaumont Cité Europe)

Films: Ensemble, c'est tout (2007), Camping 2 (2010), La princesse de Montpensier (2010), Largo Winch 2 (2011), Les Lyonnais (2011), Astérix et Obélix: Au service de Sa Majesté (2012), Populaire (2012), Gibraltar (2013), La belle et la bête (2014), En équilibre (2015), Finding Dory (2016), Brice 3 (2016), Demain tout commence (2016), Jour J (2017), Cherchez la femme (2017), The Jungle Bunch (2017), Dilili in Paris (2018), The Emperor of Paris (2018), La vérité si je mens! Les débuts (2019), Hors normes (2019), Le prince oublié (2020), 10 jours sans maman (2020)

Screens: 12  Ticket price: 10.90€

Yeah, OK, I've been to Gaumont cinemas, which I'm guessing leads you to think of me as being a bit like those people who spend their lives moaning about Tesco yet you almost never catch them buying milk from their corner shop (or if they do, they then complain that it costs more than in the supermarket).  And yep, I've lined The Man's pocket.  I really don't know what to tell you.
The Gaumont at Cité Europe is a huge aircraft hangar-type building that's right next to the restaurant end of the mall (in which there's a remote ticket machine -- which actually works, unlike those ones at Bluewater your mileage may vary) and a very short walk across the grass (but don't do this at the Eiffel Tower, kids) from a cluster of hotels (Ibis, Etap etc.).

With 3 times as many screens as the nearby Alhambra and films that are always in French (more on that later), it's the warehouse of choice for the yoof of Calais and its environs.  A huge foyer has several ticket desks, plenty of food/drink options, and a few handy queue-busting ticket machines, which not only save a bit of time (and it's usually pretty busy at peak hours -- when I went to see Largo Winch 2 I had to wait more than 15 minutes just for one of these machines) but are attractive to misanthropic types like myself who usually can't be bothered dealing with people.  Oh, and if that sounds like you, there's also a Coke machine on the other side of the ticket-tearer.  But really, your bag/pockets/hat/dog's neckerchief should be obscenely stuffed with all types of continental contraband from the nearby Carrefour hypermarket -- at these ticket prices, you've given Gaumont enough of your hard-earned.  Although, come to think of it, Carrefour are also The Man.

The auditoriums themselves are quite good.  Every time I've been there I've had a fairly enjoyable time, but on each occasion there's been a clearly audible burble of conversation rippling around the cinema, which really grinds my gears; for Largo Winch 2 I wearily moved to the other side of the auditorium to elude a gaggle of noisy latecomers.  The first trip there featured some girls stage whispering throughout the film, and provided me with the sad realisation that France wasn't impervious to inconsiderate cinemagoing types.  The film on that occasion was Ensemble, c'est tout -- a serviceable but curiously low-key affair with good-looking Audrey Tautou entering into predictably complicated romantic shenanigans with good-looking Guillaume Canet.  It's billed as being a Claude Berri (RIP) film, although while watching it I really wasn't sure as to how much of it he'd actually directed.  Sure enough, scrutiny of the credits revealed that François Dupeyron (The Officer's Ward) was given a shifty-sounding "technical advisor" credit, and it indeed turned out that Dupeyron had taken over from the ailing Berri.  Finely-tuned auteur radar or what?  I think Berri's final film -- canine caper Trésor -- actually gave Dupeyron a proper co-director credit.

On another occasion, my wife and I made an unscheduled visit there.  This was on a Saturday day trip where we'd gone over for a bit of shopping, walk along the seafront, cone of coffee, cup of chips, etc.  However, on arriving in Calais we noticed there was no-one around, and no shops open (although the latter is not at all unusual for lunchtime there).  We soon twigged it was a public holiday, and if you've never experienced a public holiday in France then you haven't experienced one at all.  Everything is closed, and there's nary a soul on the streets.  It makes those early scenes in 28 Days Later look like New Year in Times Square.  We felt kind of silly, but at least a couple of friends from home we'd arranged to meet had made the same mistake.  So more like We Are Legend.  Cue a screeching of tyres as we all headed out of town in search of wine stores, clutch and exhaust fitters, shoe shops, builders' merchants... basically anywhere we could fumble with our Euros and be involved in transactions.

We decided to head for Cité Europe where we caught Camping 2 -- we hadn't seen the first one, but somehow it didn't look as if that was going to be too critical.  Plus, it re-teamed the star and director of the great Disco, so that was a good start.  The cinema was mobbed, and I realised that this must be where those who weren't enduring visits from relatives (and perhaps some who were supposed to be -- naughty, naughty) must be taking shelter.  The film was good, ridiculous fun with Franck Dubosc (there's one for Corrie fans -- Mum???) on fine clown prince form.  Afterwards we had a meal at the nearby 3 Brewers (despite the shops at Cité Europe being shut, most/all of the restaurants by the cinema were open), and from a day that could so easily have been a write-off we had managed to fashion a fun time.  Although we've often been to Cité Europe, it's usually on a busy day trip where either a film or a proper sit-down meal is hard to fit in, let alone both.

One thing I really don't get about this place is that, despite it being just a few metres from the channel tunnel and therefore the closest French cinema to the UK, they only ever show films in French.  In all the years I've known about this place I've only ever been aware of one film that screened in something other than French (a preview of Ray).  Haven't they noticed that the mall next door is teeming with British day-trippers?  They have 12 screens FFS -- why not ghettoise one of them into a place where English language films can play with French subs?  They could even organise post-screening pitched battles between the locals and Les Rosbifs. I'm guessing they know more about it than I do and have done their homework on this (and may even have tried it out -- the screenings, not the pitched battles -- and found it not to be worthwhile), but I'm sure that as you're reading this there's many a poor soul reluctantly schlepping round Cité Europe with their other half, consequently annoying said other half, while the schlepper would much prefer to be parked up in the cinema for a couple of hours thus leaving the shopper to carry on unencumbered.  It really does seem like a missed opportunity.  If The Man is reading this (through Google Translate or whatever), have a good long think about this.  I know you like money.  Hell, I'll even help program it for you -- for the right fee, of course.  I know you're good for it.

Update:  As of 3/13, the cinema has now been given a major makeover; when I was last there it was in the midst of its redesign, with the large foyer representing a building site.  The local paper ran a page on the new-look cinema, with the manageress waxing lyrical and patrons mouthing off for and against the revamp.  I'll have to sit on the fence on this one until I can sample it for myself... 

Update:  And now I have, folks!  Not sure if they've done anything to the actual screens, but it was indeed a very comfortable seat which I took for Gibraltar (on its opening night, it was the only French film showing there).  A very solid thriller, but I doubt if stars Gilles Lellouche and Tahar Rahim would be too impressed with a mere six of us taking in the first main evening performance.  The foyer now seems to have switched over to the Vista ticketing system, but I had no real need to investigate as I'd booked online to get my smartphone ticket and, far more importantly, a saving of 3.70€ as part of some promotion.

Update:  So as to avoid rewriting/deleting all the nonsense towards the end of the initial post, let it be said that it's now not unheard of for films in their original language (w/ French subs) to pop up here -- usually such films get one show a day in VO, with the rest of the screenings hosting the expected dubbed version.  I first noticed this with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in late 2015.  While such screenings are still very much in the minority, it's nonetheless encouraging to see...

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