Le Champo, a cinema on rue des Écoles since 1938

Le Champo, an arthouse cinema at 51 rue des Écoles, on the corner of rue Champollion, held its first screening on 22 June 1938, on the site of a former Latin Quarter bookshop. It took the name of the neighbouring street and was first called the Champollion.

In 1939 Roger Joly, a lighting manufacturer with a passion for film, took it over. After a fire in 1941 he installed a periscope projection system, the rétro-réflex, unique in Europe and used until 2012. Students came to see La Grande Illusion or To Be or Not to Be. Truffaut called it his “headquarters”, Chabrol his “second university”.

A second screen opened in the basement in 1955, in a former cabaret. In 1980 Roger Joly’s daughter, Christiane Renavand, took over. For its fiftieth anniversary in 1988 it added the name of Jacques Tati, its long-standing patron. Threatened by a property scheme, it was listed as a historic monument in 2000.

Le Champo now devotes itself to classic cinema, with long seasons on Kurosawa, Lynch, Mizoguchi or Guitry. In the foyer, a poster for Jour de fête and the silhouette of Monsieur Hulot greet the audience, in the heart of the Latin Quarter.