Paru le 8 Oct. 2015
ISBN 978-2-07-010748-3
300 pages
21.00 euros
 
  Le Brady, cinéma des damnés
 
   
DU MÊME AUTEUR
AUX ÉDITIONS VERTICALES


  Jacques Thorens
   
  Ce livre propose la « biographie d’un lieu », Le Brady, dernier cinéma de quartier parisien. L’auteur, qui y fut projectionniste dans les années 2000, a tiré de cette expérience un texte foisonnant, drôle et informé. Il met en scène ses collègues, l’increvable propriétaire J.-P. Mocky, les fondus de films « bis » (fantastique, gore, kung-fu, western-spaghetti voire moussaka, porno), mais aussi d’autres spectateurs atypiques (sans-logis, retraités maghrébins, amateurs de brèves rencontres), et tous les riverains occasionnels (prostituées, coiffeurs afro, soiffards).
Le Brady, cinéma des damnés reconstitue la mémoire des années turbulentes d’une salle obscure inclassable, comme le documentaire subjectif qui s’en inspire. Une somme inventive et attachante qui satisfera la curiosité de ceux qui croient encore que l’aventure est au coin de la rue.


This book is the biography of a place : Le Brady, the last true Parisian neighborhood cinema in the district near Gare de l’Est (Xth arr.). Based on personal experience – the author was projectionist there in the early 2000s – horens has produced a work of non-fiction abounding in humour and insightful detail. Alongside descriptions of several of his colleagues – the tireless owner of Le Brady until 2011; the French film director Jean-Pierre Mocky –, the author presents the programme of "B-movies" (fantasy, horror, kung fu, spaghetti or Moussaka westerns (!), porn...), but also the other atypical spectators who frequented the theatre (the homeless, closeted gay pensioners from the Maghreb, amateur adventurers cruising for encounters), and all the casual residents of the neighborhood (Bulgarian and later Chinese prostitutes, afro hairdressers, alcoholics). An uncommon spot, only in The Brady could you find zombies in the stalls as well as on the screen !
The Brady, cinéma des damnés [The Brady, Cinema of the Damned] reconstructs memories from the reprobate and turbulent years of an unclassifiable movie house, today a gentrified “arts & essay” theatre. It’s a narrative non-fiction and a documentary as subjective as the place that inspired it. An inventive and engaging book, Thorens’ text will satisfy all those who still believe that adventure is just around the corner.

PRESS
”At the Brady, cinema is in the house. Thorens shares all his disbelief and tenderness, mixing folk memories of the neighborhood and B-movies history, with its cheap tricks and its pithy insults.“ [
Lui, Marguerite Baux]

“Jacques Thorens presents a chronicle of one of the great Parisian places - a kind of Memoirs of the eroticocinephilia.” [
François Angelier, O de L’Obs]