A few years ago an armoured-car driver named Toni Musulin perpetrated a huge inside job that became France’s equivalent of the British Great Train Robbery and the US Brink’s Job. Those two thefts became movies, and now it’s the Musulin caper’s turn.

Of all the unique cinemas to be found in Paris, none is quite as unique as La Péniche. The name means “barge,” and it is literally a theatre located on an old barge. The Péniche is moored in the Canal de l’Ourq, in the extreme north of Paris.

Jean Seberg’s voice calls out, shrill and clear above the swelling orchestral score those lines that have been etched in the mind of cinema forever: “New York Herald Tribune, New York Herald Tribune!”

A meeting of two monstres sacrés of French cinema is always fun, but when one is Fabrice Luchini the match seems destined to be overstacked. Not to fear: Philippe Le Guay’s spiky new comedy, Alceste à Bicyclette, is an achievement on several levels.

Just as the enjoyment of a film can be impacted by the movie theatre one sees it in, so the attraction of a theatre can depend on the neighborhood where it’s located. Studio 28 would be a gem of a cinema whatever the location, but its charm is magnified by being nestled in the heights of Montmartre.

Amour is one of the best films of 2012, and has been universally praised (garnering at least 16 Best Film awards). Now that it’s opened in the US, it may well win an Oscar for Best Director. After all, the Academy has looked kindly on French cinema these last years.

The Cinématheque Française is a unique institution—there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else. It’s a repository of France’s cinematic heritage, whose screenings have provided an education to generations of French filmmakers, most famously the New Wave that changed film history.

Jacques Doillon’s films are unique in the intimiste genre in that they often involve children in the action, and Un Enfant de Toi (Me, You, and Us) is no exception. In fact, Olga Milshstein as seven-year-old Lina is what makes this two-and-a-quarter hour story of a separated couple that can’t stay apart so absorbing.

Cinéma refers not only to movies, but to the movie experience: sitting in a darkened room with a crowd of people in front of a large illuminated square. Seeing movies on a computer screen, tablet or even a smartphone may be convenient or cheap, but it’s not the same. And in Paris the cinema scene has many interesting variations. In this series we highlight several of the most unique cinemas in Paris, starting with MK2 Bibliothèque.