Utopia Toulouse, Arthouse cinema in Toulouse, France.
Utopia Toulouse is an arthouse cinema in central Toulouse housed within a historic building and featuring three screening rooms. The venue shows independent and international films with subtitles available in French and English throughout the year.
The building was a jeu de paume court before becoming Toulouse's first opera house in 1687. After a fire in 1748 it was rebuilt as the Salle du Concert, and in 1784 Archbishop Loménie de Brienne founded the learned society Le Musée there. It became a permanent cinema, the American Cosmograph, in 1907; renamed Le Rio in 1949, it took the name Utopia Toulouse in 1993 and returned to American Cosmograph in 2016.
The building's name recalls its 1907 opening as one of Toulouse's first permanent cinemas, the American Cosmograph; it was renamed Le Rio in 1949, Utopia in 1993, and took back the American Cosmograph name in 2016. The facade carries a yellow mural with a grey cartoon figure in a yellow-and-green helmet and a wooden sign reading "American Cosmagraph" in cursive.
The entrance is at 24 rue Montardy, a short walk from place du Capitole. The screening rooms are upstairs and the venue is not wheelchair accessible. The three doorways on the wooden facade lead into a single lobby; the right-hand glass door carries the word UTOPIA.
The building's entrance was originally at 5 rue du Pré-Montardy, with a long corridor leading to the hall itself, set back against rue Romenguière (now rue Montardy). The street front was chosen for carriage access and its better reputation, while the back lane lay narrow and ill-famed under the ramparts.
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