The Real Underground Cinema
John Henley writes for The Guardian:
Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement.Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries.
"We have no idea whatsoever," a police spokesman said.
"There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don't think it's extremists. Some sect or secret society, maybe. There are any number of possibilities."
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".
There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
Thanks, Crid!
"What is ze password?"
"Escargot"
"Do you have ze film?"
"Oui. We meet at ze stroke of midnight."
"You don't have to say yes twice."
"I did not say yes twice."
"You said oui, oui, meet at ze stroke of midnight."
"Merde! I have GOT to find a better secret society."
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 25, 2009 8:09 AM
> Three days later, when the police returned
Um, wait three days without guarding the place because of...?
Snoopy at July 25, 2009 8:41 AM
Favorite film dialogue:
Du Quois, introduce the American to the men.
Very well. This is Chevalier, Montage, Detente, Avant Garde, and Deja Vu.
Have we not met before, Monsieur?
I don't think so.
Over there...Croissant, Souffle, Escargot, and Chocolate Mousse.
Crid at July 25, 2009 9:51 AM
My best guess is that, not only the "Crime" received little interest by the cops but also might have been discovered a friday evening.
Toubrouk at July 25, 2009 11:14 AM
> Three days later, when the police returned
Um, wait three days without guarding the place because of...?
-Snoopy
My best guess is that, not only the "Crime" received little interest by the cops but also might have been discovered a friday evening.
-Toubrouk
Paraniod sob that I am I'm betting Toubrouk's answer will be the 'offical' reason.
$20 bucks says someone high up in the police dept was a member and had it placed at a low priority to give their friends time to clean up
lujlp at July 25, 2009 2:31 PM
Wait a minute. Wake up. Get some coffee or something.
There wasn't really anything to guard.
Think for a minute. Do you actually consider it mandatory that police know of and approve everything? Are you even leaning that way?
Radwaste at July 25, 2009 8:12 PM
No, but tecnically someone was running an illegal bar and most likely steaing city utilites.
Plus I find it hard to belive had they simply asked someone to come look at the cool, recently discovered underground theater which the most cursory of glances showed it to have been in use for at least 100 yrs, possily by some secret society that not one peron would have said yes.
Why a find like that wasnt crawling with off duty cops and wannabe archeologists is beyond me
Hell,
lujlp at July 25, 2009 9:21 PM
Much of historical Jerusalem has been rebuilt on piers to protect the antiquities below.
One family bought an apartment in the Old City, picked up the floor tiles, and started digging. They uncovered a mansion from the Second Temple era - complete with charred ceiling beams from the sacking of Jerusalem.
I worked as an engineer on the new Jerusalem City Hall complex, just outside the Jaffa Gate. They uncovered several Crusader-era fortifications. The did a quick salvage excavation, documented the finds, and continued building. I was shocked, but the locals just shrugged. Otherwise nothing would get built.
... and before I moved here, I thought Revolutionary-era Fraunces Tavern on Wall Street was old. And shards of old Dutch pottery from New Amsterdam were antiquities.
Heh.
Ben-David at July 26, 2009 1:38 PM
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