Living in Paris, I developed a habit of seeing around one film per week. It's no difficult feat in a city where you can practically find a theatre drawing you into the velvety dark at every corner, and where locals treat the cinema as an art and an illuminating reach toward life, rather than as a noisy distraction from life's problems. Don't get me wrong: I like to distract myself with an occasional blockbuster as much as the next person...and I've even been chastised on a couple of occasions for munching on popcorn (a faux pas among the arthouse crowd especially in this city). But there's something about the way Parisians treat the cinema as a sacred place, and still excitedly talk about directors and their latest creations, that's contagious. Whether you're a hardcore cinephile yourself or only an occasional dabbler, Paris movie theaters-- including the Latin Quarter's iconic Champo, pictured above-- are wonderful and memorable places to haunt, especially in the wet winter weather.
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