Cinéma la Clef

A militantly independent cinema, La Clef (The Key) (formerly Images d’Ailleurs) is a stone’s throw from the Université Paris-III, and constantly educates its audience in politically and artistically engaged films that often don’t go on general release.

Debates, festivals and other events fill the two screens (120 and 65 seats), with the lion’s share of the programme given over to documentary cinema (for example, a 2012 retrospective on the remarkable Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman). But La Clef also knows to alternate documentaries with comedy, drama and thrillers.

All in all, it’s an elegant, original and intelligent programme in a friendly venue: more than opening doors, La Clef prefers to open up multiple perspectives. The wordplay is easy – but the cinema on the corner of Rue de la Clef carries its name extremely well.