Rue Lafayette (today Fuxing lu, 复兴路）was going through most of the French Concession. The Western part was a high class neighborhood dotted with upscale residences, as seen in movie “Love and duty“. The middle part was more urban and popular. This is where Lafayette Cinema was located.
Built in 1933 following a design from Laszlo Hudec, the Lafayette Cinema is a classic streamline design. It was build of steel and concrete, with a long horizontal front, contrasting with a vertical line that was also used as a beacon for the location. The style is very similar to Laszlo Hudec other streamline design cinema, the Grand Theater on people square, that also opened in 1933. The beacon was visible from far, attracting the attention of passer-bys.
Located on 323 Route Lafayette, the Lafayette Cinema was single screen, with 850 seats. As opposed to the Grand Theater which was one of the top movie houses in Shanghai, the Lafayette Cinema was catering for a more popular audience. It was a second-class theater that was showing movies a few weeks after premiering, for a cheaper price. It was very popular with a Chinese audience. The owner was Mateo Beharas, a French Jewish businessman from Marseille who was mostly known for importing Tissot watches in China. The family also owned the Zekiang Cinema (today Zhejiang Cinema), on 123 Zhejiang lu, that was also designed by Laszlo Hudec and built in 1930.
Having survived all those years, the Lafayette cinema saw a nice restauration of its façade in the 2000s. It even survived an exit of metro line 10 being built within the building. The building was then turned into a cultural center and the façade was quite similar to the original one.
Unfortunately, it has been renovated again recently and heritage protection was surely not on the scope of the new owner as shown on picture above. Hopefully not too much damage was done on the façade and the overlay can be removed later on.
It seems that historic official plaques are no protection against bad taste. This reminded me of another ruinovation a few months ago (See post Crime scene on Rue Henry).