Cinema V

On August 20, 1977 I raced here with a friend from a film at the 1st Montreal Film Festival in order to see a commercial showing in this theatre of Luchino Visconti's "The Innocent." The film had not yet been released in the United States and wouldn't be until early 1979. I believe the theatre was called the Ciné-Club IV at the time. Here is a photo I took around 1989.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/italiangerry/Cinemas/CinemaV-Montreal.jpg

This site should be merged, it seems, with Cinema V-Salle Hermes & Empress. They all have the same address and may be the same theatre building.

They are the same theater. I believe that this one was added first. This is the duplicate one:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/9620/

The city of Montreal purchased the building in 1999. There are plans a foot to renovate and reopen the building as community center for stage plays, musical performances and other events.

Currently a non-profit organization called the "Empress Cultural Centre" is in charge of the project. They have three phases planned (currently phase one is complete: reopening the ground floor office as a headquarters for the project) but the other two are on hold while they try to secure the funding needed--$8.3 million dollars.

I spoke to the organizers last month, they estimate it'll be at least two years before the building is reopen (and personally I think that's being optimistic, without funding it'll remain closed indefinitely). No plans to turn it back into a film theatre, it'd be live performances mostly. In the meantime there's no much there, it still sits closed up and and empty, apart from the small ground floor office.

Addendum to above: This afternoon the doors to the main building were opened when I happened to be passing by (no renovations are being done or even planned, but some volunteers were there clearing out some debris). I had a peek into what was once the theatre lobby...

Much to my disappointment it has been entirely gutted, presumably from damage from the fire in '92. The walls, floors and stairs are just bare concrete with exposed pipes and wiring on the ceiling. There was a strong dank and musty smell, even several feet away on the street. Chances are they'll need to treat the building for mold contamination if it ever does reopen. I chatted briely with the head organizer and she confirmed most of the theatre has been stripped and gutted to the bare brick, although there are still some original seats in the upper balacony area and vintage moldings and architecture still intact in places--not all is lost.

One interesting thing I saw in the lobby. Look at the photograph link above, taken in 1989--I saw part of the original markee sign sitting there, specifically the white disc with red print that says "Cinema V: Salle 1". Might make a nice collectable to someone out there heh. Incidentally the bricked up windows you see in the photograph (just above the markee) have been since restored. The bricks are gone and glass windows have been put back. Unfortunately the girl I spoke with didn't seem optimistic about an opening anytime soon.

Here is some information about possibly opening this theater as a performing arts center.

With the right community input and funding, it would be fantastic to see The Empress re-open someday as a live performance venue. I wrote a tribute for theatre over at 32elvismovies, including an ad for its opening night from the Montreal Gazette.

Here is a February 2008 article.

This is a photo of Cinema V.

I read a newspaper article posted on Empress's door that said they'd had to struggle to pay $400,000 (?) in backed taxes. They managed to save themselves at the 11th hour.

The Save the Empress Cultural Centre website is gone. Are they still waiting on funding or is this project dead?

The new website of the Empress Cultural Centre Project-->
http://empresscentre.org/home/homeE.html

A link to a video on th Empress Cultural Centre, former Cinema V-->
http://www.vennettilli.com/Empress.mov

Back in the late ‘70s, when Cinema V was a going concern run by Ricky Friedman, it was a regular haunt of Montreal’s english-speaking, movie-loving community. One day I explored some of the building’s hidden corners with the writer Dane Lanken (husband of Anna McGarrigle) for an article we worked on together for the theatre’s program. We felt a bit like Howard Carter when he discovered and opened the tomb of King Tut; upstairs in the wings behind the curtains we turned on a dim light to see painted hieroglyphics on the walls (at least those sections that hadn’t been covered with acoustic panelling) and a large mask of Tut high on a frieze — regrettably smashed through years before to allow for an air exhaust pipe to pass through the wall. Fragments of the plaster mask lay shattered on the floor. I think I still have a copy of a vaudeville program from the 30s that we found tossed with others down a stairwell in the adjoining office and dressing room wing. It was fantastic.

Best of luck with the project.