Menton: Eden Cinema Reinvents Itself for a Cultural 2026

 

Despite a change in management at the beginning of 2025, Menton’s only cinema, L’Eden, has not missed a beat. Quite the opposite: the three-screen venue continues to broaden its horizons, offering an increasingly eclectic program designed to reflect the tastes and curiosity of its diverse local audience. And if 2025 was a year of adjustment, the outlook for 2026 is shaping up to be distinctly optimistic.

“We ended the year on a strong note with Avatar 3 and The Housekeeper, which were the pleasant surprises of the Christmas holidays,” explains Jean-Marie Charvet, owner of the cinema. He does, however, acknowledge a broader national trend: “Attendance was down about 20% over the year—63,000 admissions in 2025 compared to 80,000 in 2024—which is the case for most cinemas across France.”

Charvet is clear-eyed about the reasons. “Alongside commercial releases, we were missing at least two major crowd-pullers like Un p’tit truc en plus or Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, which came out in 2024. To make a year really work, you need those anchor films.” For a local cinema, the response is adaptation—and renewal.

A Cultural Kick-Off to 2026

The year begins on a decidedly cultural note. From February onward, L’Eden will host a series of events blending cinema, music, and intellectual discovery.

The highlight for film lovers is a film-concert dedicated to Georges Brassens, scheduled for Sunday, February 8 at 6:30 p.m. The evening opens with a live performance by Nicolas Paugam, whose show “Nicolas Paugam tropicalizes Brassens” reimagines the songs of the legendary singer-songwriter, who died in 1981.

In the second half, director Sandrine Dumarais will present a screening of her film The Gaze of Georges Brassens. Built largely from intimate and moving personal testimonies, the film reveals a lesser-known side of Brassens. Long before fame, he had taken up a camera, filming moments of his life—sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white—and, above all, the people he loved. The result is a rare, human portrait of an iconic artist. (€15 for the full evening.)

Another early highlight comes just days later: the first conference of 2026, on Thursday, February 12 at 3 p.m., devoted to art history. Led by Françoise Tayar, professor of art history and art photographer, the lecture will offer an in-depth reading of a series of paintings, accompanied by projected works.

Reviving the Spirit of Art-House Cinema

Beyond individual events, L’Eden has a larger ambition: to reclaim its place as a true Art et Essai cinema. “As we did years ago, we want to revive the ciné-club spirit and work toward obtaining the Art and Experimental Cinema classification,” Charvet explains. His other cinemas in Fréjus (Le Lido) and Saint-Raphaël (Le Vox) already hold this label.

The classification is demanding. It requires cinemas to screen so-called “unique” films—works of undeniable artistic quality that have yet to find the audience they deserve. In return, the label brings recognition and access to subsidies from the Ministry of Culture. “We’ll be working with the Var-based association Artem 83 to develop the artistic and cultural side of the Eden in Menton,” Charvet adds.

A Local Cinema, First and Foremost

Plans for 2026 also include live theater performances for young audiences starting with the February school holidays, as well as one-man shows for adults. Under the direction of Nathalie Poulet, the Menton cinema will roll out these initiatives during the first quarter of the year, while continuing regular collaborations with local partners such as Amnesty International, Sciences Po, and other community organizations.

While the broader film industry looks promising for 2026, Charvet remains firmly focused on what makes L’Eden unique. Big-budget films may draw crowds to multiplexes elsewhere on the Riviera, but Menton’s cinema thrives on proximity, loyalty, and cultural curiosity—especially among its subscribers.

Discussions about the cinema’s future have already taken place at Menton’s town hall, though past projects were shelved as “too expensive” or “too complicated.” Perhaps, in keeping with the spirit of the City of Lemons, a more human-scale vision of cinema is exactly what works best.

One thing is certain: as municipal elections approach next March, the future of L’Eden—and culture in Menton more broadly—deserves a central place in the conversation.