In Montreal, two iconic film palaces, each in their own way

Walking around downtown Montreal over the last couple of days – my first extensive trip to the city in more than two years - I happened by two major film complexes. Iconic in their own ways. One is Cinema Imperial, a more than 100-year-old cinema that would be to Montreal what the Fox Theatre is to Detroit. Once a vaudeville house in later years it became the Cinerama theatre in the 1960s (and, as a Montreal native, where I was taken to see How the West was Won (Henry Hathaway 1962 ) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Henry Levin and George Pal 1962). In more recent years it became a centerpiece of the city’s late lamented Festival des Films du Monde (World Film Festival) which ended a 42-year run in 2019. It has also played host to the

city’s oldest festival, the Festival du Nouveau Cinema – still kicking – and the upstart Cinemania and Fantasia fests. But I was dismayed to see that the front doors had been papered over as if renovation was taking place...or something worse, such as closed for good. Reading online I found that in fact this “jewel” of Montreal’s entertainment and arts scene has indeed closed, at least temporarily. Various bodies – private and public - have tried to keep it afloat over the last decade, injecting millions of dollars including $3M last year from the federal government for restoration. But the doors are sealed shut.....Meanwhile at the other end of downtown the one time “shrine” of hockey, the Montreal Forum – where more Stanley Cups have been won than in any other venue – continues as a massive multiplex, now run by Cineplex. The Forum closed in the late 1990s, and US-based AMC took it over opening a 30-screen multiplex on different floors. Now Cineplex runs it. It is cavernous - where the former rink and hockey spectator seats used to be – and beautiful if also showcasing a lot of empty space! A few restaurants/bars and stores are on the ground floor.  But very few people were there on a weekday late morning.  When I stopped by to see what was playing, the most interesting film was Friendship (Andrew DeYoung 2024). But I took a pass because I wanted to keep on walking.