Escurial, Art house cinema on boulevard de Port-Royal, 13th arrondissement, Paris, France

L'Escurial is an art house cinema at 11, boulevard de Port-Royal, its cream facade topped by red channel letters reading "cinéma ESCURIAL" above a band of white circular bulbs. Inside, the main room seats 244 and a small room built on the former balcony seats 85, fitted with a CHRISTIE CP2220-A 2K digital projector and a 35mm projector respectively. Red velvet, gilding, chandeliers, mirrors and Harcourt studio photographs remain from the 1940s.

Opened in 1911 as Le Royal in a former hangar, the hall was enlarged in the 1920s to about 500 orchestra seats and 100 balcony seats. It took the name L'Escurial in 1933, after a cinema in Nice. Director Jean Gourguet bought it in 1953 and installed CinemaScope. In 1981 it nearly became a supermarket; the team from the former Le Daumesnil cinema took it over in 1991.

The name comes from a cinema in Nice, adopted in 1933. The programme includes the "Italie à Paris" festival each June and "Mon premier festival" for young children around All Saints' Day, alongside themed retrospectives. These choices helped triple attendance after the 1991 takeover.

The cinema is located at Boulevard de Port-Royal in the Gobelins district, accessible via public transportation. It helps to check the website beforehand for current showtimes and the program being screened.

The small 85-seat second room occupies the space of the former balcony, and it still runs a 35mm projector while the main 244-seat room uses a digital CHRISTIE CP2220-A 2K. The red velvet, gilding, chandeliers, mirrors and Harcourt studio photographs date from the 1940s reworking.