World’s oldest cinema to reopen on Wednesday

Technicians are at work on Oct. 4, 2013, in the projection room of the world’s oldest cinema “L’Eden” in La Ciotat, southern France. L’Eden cinema, which screened in 1895 the first films of the French Lumiere brothers, closed in 1995 for security reasons and will open to public after revamp on Oct. 9. AFP

LA CIOTAT, France—The world’s oldest movie theater, where the first films of the pioneering Lumiere brothers were screened in 1899, reopens in a sleepy southern French town Wednesday after an extensive facelift.

Gleaming, velvet seats replace dusty chairs, fresh yellow paint and mosaic tiles adorn the facade while oak floors take the place of old carpets. The Eden Theater, which closed in 1995, is all set for an inauguratory gala event.

Actresses Juliette Binoche and Nathalie Baye and film director Roman Polanski are reportedly among the stars expected to attend Wednesday’s ceremony at the seafront theater in La Ciotat, a town near the sprawling port city of Marseille.

It was at the Eden that the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, screened their first moving pictures to 250 dazzled spectators on March 21, 1899.

The brothers had previously showcased their work in other places, first at their rich, industrialist father’s home and then at other cinemas, but these have since disappeared.

Over the decades, the Eden became both a cinema and theater, and several French film stars such as Yves Montand and Fernandel performed there in the early days of their careers.

But it hit hard times in the 1980s when the then owner was killed by crooks trying to steal his money, and movie buffs just stopped going.

After that, the building opened only for one week every year to host a festival showcasing the first ever French-language movies, until its closure in 1995.

Supporters of the old, historic monument never gave up their fight to get it reopened, but it was not until Marseille was named European Capital of Culture for 2013 that local authorities finally agreed to renovations that cost six million euros ($8.1 million).

The Eden will operate as a normal cinema run by a private operator, and visitors will also be able to wander through a permanent exhibition outlining the origins of animated pictures.

Outside, the facade will be adorned with a laser installation at night depicting a train, to mark the 50-second-long film “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat” filmed by the Lumiere brothers in 1895.

The black-and-white, silent movie shows a steam train pulling into a station, and passengers getting in and out.

The story goes that when it was first screened, spectators were so terrified with the image of a train moving toward them that they leapt out of their chairs and ran out in panic, though many people have suggested this is an urban legend.

The challenge for the Eden will be to make the 166-seat theater economically viable, and fans of the building say it should be a larger cultural project that offers educational tours for school children, screens restored films and hosts film festivals.—Anne Beade