Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is adding a state-of-the-art cinema to feature “the seventh art” in their growing complex.
Nathalie Bondil, the General Director and Chief Curator made the announcement yesterday, in the company of Mario Fortin, who will oversee the new “Cinema du Musee”.
Listen“It is an event, it is a night out!”
Fortin is the General Manager of the popular Cinema du Park and Cinema Beaubien. These independent theatres provide the “little gems” that the multi-plexes overlook.
And they have a winning formula. Fortin has witnessed a revival in the neighbourhood around the Beaubien, with more restaurants and cafes now catering to the audiences.
He has fond memories of the glory days of the movies; when he started in a downtown theatre as the assistant manager in the 1970’s they were still wearing tuxedos for the evening screenings.
The Cinema du Musee is a desperately needed third screen in the city he says. For the patrons, largely an over-forty crowd, “it is an event it is a night out!” he says.
“We’re going to Cannes, we’re going to Berlin, we’re going to Toronto, to all those film festivals”
The Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, in the original building of the museum, is in the lower level.
But following the renovations underway this summer, the street-level entrance, will open up to a new reception area, offering a great destination in the dark, cold months of winter.
As for the programming, the new digital equipment allows for subtitles in either official language, and many of the others most spoken in Montreal.
“We’re going to Cannes, we’re going to Berlin, we’re going to Toronto, to all those film festivals and we’re trying to find those little gems that we could bring to Montreal”, Fortin says.
In describing her “vision” for the cinema, Nathalie Bondil imagined the cinema “featuring new releases, fiction, documentaries, conversations and gatherings,” in “a ‘front-row’ location at the MMFA, with its Sherbrooke Street entrance in the heart of downtown.”
The Cinema du Musee will be ready for the fall season with an inaugural event in late September.
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