Netflix recently leased the Paris cinema.

Rich is the irony. Who would have thought the arbiter of how and where you can satisfy your need for a true, single-screen cinema experience would be a company largely responsible for the demise of that very experience?

The finest ex-cinema in New York, if not the world—Radio City Music Hall—stopped its four showings alternating with four live shows format years ago. That was the end of an era. Netflix has just prevented another.

The Paris closed in August 2019 and would have remained closed were it not for the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (overseers of The Academy Awards) requirement that nominees have a theatrical release.

This 580-seat venue, which even has a balcony, opened in 1948 and originally specialized in showing French films. Over the years, the Paris established a snooty reputation, showing Merchant-Ivory type films or other non-controversial works despite its former Art House reputation.

Now, Netflix will qualify the films it wants considered for an Academy Award and you can see them in the only single-screen house in the city.

The Paris is near the southeast corner of Central Park where is located the Children’s Zoo and the Wolman Skating rink. Next door is Bergdorf Goodman department store and Tiffany, on the corner of 57th and Fifth Avenue. There is a charming restaurant in Bergdorf Goodman worth a visit, or you could enter the Plaza Hotel for a pre or post-show drink.