What Lives On, What’s Left Behind

By Kaveh Jalinous

Paris’ Gaumont Champs-Elysées is gone. Its six theaters, spread over three floors, sit empty. Its 1,597 seats have been occupied for the last time. Its lights are dimmed. Its doors are sealed. With its deceptively hidden entrance–on a crowded sidewalk, sandwiched between open and shuttered storefronts, maybe no one has even noticed. But for those who frequented the French national chain’s cinema–the equivalent to Times Square’s AMC, albeit much smaller–the empty marquee is devastating.