In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema
Jon Henley in Paris
Wednesday September 8, 2004
The Guardian


Them bones, them bones: Les Catacombes, part of the miles of tunnels underlying Paris. Photo: AP


Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement.
Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries.

"We have no idea whatsoever," a police spokesman said.

"There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don't think it's extremists. Some sect or secret society, maybe. There are any number of possibilities."

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.

Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.

"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

The miles of tunnels and catacombs underlying Paris are essentially former quarries, dating from Roman times, from which much of the stone was dug to build the city.

Today, visitors can take guided tours around a tightly restricted section, Les Catacombes, where the remains of up to six million Parisians were transferred from overcrowded cemeteries in the late 1700s.

But since 1955, for security reasons, it has been an offence to "penetrate into or circulate within" the rest of the network.

There exist, however, several secretive bands of so-called cataphiles, who gain access to the tunnels mainly after dark, through drains and ventilation shafts, and hold what in the popular imagination have become drunken orgies but are, by all accounts, innocent underground picnics.

The recent discovery of three newly enlarged tunnels underneath the capital's high-security La Santé prison was put down to the activities of one such group, and another, iden tifying itself as the Perforating Mexicans, last night told French radio the subterranean cinema was its work.

Patrick Alk, a photographer who has published a book on the urban underground exploration movement and claims to be close to the group, told RTL radio the cavern's discovery was "a shame, but not the end of the world". There were "a dozen more where that one came from," he said.

"You guys have no idea what's down there."

Personally, I think there should be more underground (literally) film societies! That would be so cool to hang out in underground tunnels!

JediMaster said:

me too. But why is it illegal to go into the tunnels in the first place, are they unsafe?

How big are the catacombs that they havent found this one before? do I sound like a tourist yet lol

ella731 said:

I was wondering all of those same things!! I know Heiress lives there, so maybe I can get her to shed some light on the subject. Seems like folks should be able to go in there, if its not a safety issue.

JediMaster said:

i'm guessing it might be a matter of respect for the bones? considering that they were once people. and definitely a matter of preserving the "patrimoine," france's cultural heritage.

just my guess...

wow! super cool! i wanna join the secret society so I can go watch movies there.

last week I watched a movie in a cemetary here in L.A. it wasn't so secret though, there were about 600-700 people. Cool and kinda creepy.

Dammit-this thread isn't about Mexican paper art?

Boy, that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase...errr...

Ummm...






I got nothing.

Heiress said:

The remains in a catacomb are open to the elements. There is probably historical significance as well.

But, they were making couscous

Heiress said:

That makes some sense. Thanks!

Heiress said:

I thought what if someone put a bomb down there, Probably easier to keep the city safe by just keeping people out.

paintsprayer said:

Mr President!

Hehehe.

The guys running that pad are kewl!

It's vampires.

I know it.

JediMaster said:

"do not try to find us"

whoa ho. wonder who was using the space?

i read about the vaults under edinburgh, scotland. pretty screepy/scary stuff that went on down there too, sealed for years and forgotten, only to be re-discovered in the 80s.

haunted in a big way, if rumors and tourist accounts can be believed - wouldn't that be an interesting place for late-night features too? or maybe the ghosts would be pissed off

All I know is that:

A) its cool as shit that certain cities have underground tunnels that are built up, but off limits to the general public

B) its even cooler than shit that there is a secret film society using said tunnels!!

Sweeny79 said:

Maybe Anne Rice was on to something?

Weenie dog that live with Hopkins once make a tunnel. It go into neigbor's yard. Dave get mad. Spank weenie dog. Did people who make these tunnels get spanked?