Studio 28, a cinema on rue Tholozé in Montmartre since 1928

Studio 28, a Montmartre cinema at 10 rue Tholozé, was opened on 10 February 1928 by Jean-Placide Mauclaire. It was the first avant-garde cinema devoted entirely to experimental film, built on the site of a former chansonnier cabaret, with a balcony and 400 seats.

Luis Buñuel, Jean Cocteau and Abel Gance were regulars. It showed the first Chinese film released in France and Abel Gance’s triptychs. In 1930 a screening of Buñuel’s L’Âge d’or turned into a battle: the cinema was wrecked and the film banned. Édouard Gross then programmed American comedies in their original version.

In 1948 the brothers Edgar and Georges Roulleau took over. The new auditorium, opened in 1950, received light fittings designed by Jean Cocteau, still in place; Cocteau and Gance became its godfathers. Bresson, Buñuel and, in 1979, The King and the Mockingbird were premiered here.

In 2000 Jean-Pierre Jeunet shot a scene of Amélie here. Renovated in 2011, the cinema now has 170 seats. Studio 28 remains a neighbourhood arthouse cinema at the foot of the Butte, with recent releases, previews and a café.