UGC Ciné-Cité
Bercy

Nothing remains of the dark corridors and underground rooms which used to shudder with every passage of a metro train: the auditoriums have been developed across two or three levels with clearly identifiable copper volumes and easy access via a clear circulation layout. Received via the foyer, cinemagoers take staircases and escalators to the desired level, an ascent in the light that reveals the full scale of the complex.

Auditoriums and projection rooms are linked by large concrete cones, symbolising the beam of light projecting the image onto the screen. Cinemagoers access the auditoriums via the top and exit via the bottom, their paths crossing in the space without ever becoming entangled. From one building to the other, the public’s ceaseless ballet seems symmetrical, like a mirror image, above the extended cour Saint-Émilion.

On the façades the glowing screens shine brightly and the auditoriums are revealed, protruding as part of a concrete case inlaid with jutting metal strips: a succession of façades coming to terms with the real and the unreal, an allusion to the building’s activity and an illusion of the senses. At night, the complex stands out, lit from within, emphasising its location on the threshold of unreality. Realised in association with Alberto Cattani and Pierre Chican, the UGC Ciné-Cité Bercy gives shape to a poetry of crossings (crossing through a wall, crossing from the real to the unreal, and so on), an expression of the cinematographic imagination.