Cinemas: A French Heritage

Beautiful, haunting photographs of abandoned cinemas around the world. The ultimate visual reference from a skilled photographer.

The packed audiences of darkened cinema rooms are no more. People are gradually drifting back home to lounge in front of a multitude of online platforms, far less expensive than a trip to the picture palace. Habits have changed... the cinema is no longer a world of magic.

Movie theatres have lost their splendour, often pushed into the suburbs and choked left and right by fast-food chains as if they were ashamed to exist at all.

However, some of this fabulous heritage dedicated to the stuff of dreams which cinemas once were still exists, especially in France. This is one of the few countries left where theatres are still being built, sometimes with audacious architecture. Also, France is a place where their demise is fervently denied. Sometimes, on a street corner, a forgotten but flamboyant facade recalls past glories. It's there to remind everyone that cinema is immortal.

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 ci:es and countryside, to seek out this exceptional heritage.