At Cinéma Cantine, on Sundays you first take a seat for the regular restaurant service at Cantine de Caron, and then watch a movie in the same space. It’s not a standalone art house cinema, but a temporary film program taking place right in the middle of an existing restaurant. The regular schedule: eight Sunday evenings in the winter, each featuring dinner followed by a film screening.
After dinner, the dining room at Cantine de Caron is transformed into a movie theater. The chairs are arranged in rows, the lights dim, and everyone’s attention shifts to a single large screen in the room. You remain seated in the same setting, but the room’s function shifts: from restaurant to movie theater. This makes the transition from dinner to the movie feel natural and seamless, without having to move to a different location.
The program focuses on modern classics and films with a clear theme. The films are selected by filmmakers Olivia Lonsdale and Idriss Nabil. They curate a series around topics such as youth, identity, and human relationships. As a result, you don’t get a random collection of titles, but a series in which the films seem to engage in a dialogue with one another. Over the course of the eight evenings, this creates a continuous winter program, rather than just a series of individual movie nights.
The programming focuses on modern classics and titles with a clear theme.
In the Westergas area, Cinéma Cantine adds something new to the existing cultural landscape. Amid other cultural activities, film finds a home here in a restaurant that’s already part of the complex. This makes it an accessible Sunday routine: you don’t have to choose between going out to eat or watching a movie, because at Cinéma Cantine, you can do both on the same evening and in the same space.