L'Alcazar in Asnières-sur-Seine: a cinematic experience... without a projector

Following major renovation work in 2021 (from the lobby to the seats, to PMR compliance), the Alcazar cinema has been offering innovative technology since October 2022, with a room equipped with an LED screen. We've tried it out to give you a sneak preview.

A few words about the technology for lovers of beautiful images: the LG LED screen is installed in the 300-seat main auditorium (choose number 1 if you book from their website here). It measures 10 meters across and is made up of 192 LED panels, offering a visual quality superior to most projection systems.

Although this process already existed with other equipment manufacturers, the visual quality offered by this LED screen (the^1st in cinema in France for LG) is impressive, thanks to absolute blackness and a luminosity that can be increased to 300 candela/m² (to put it simply, a unit of measurement for brightness), well above the current standard of 48 cd/m². This feature extends the contrast range, enabling you to watch a film even with the lights on. The audio system with CP950 Dolby processor, meanwhile, integrates speakers located at the top and bottom of the screen, enabling sound rendering two-thirds of the way up the image, similar to that of a traditional cinema.

The LG LED screen is also said to offer significant ecological benefits: it consumes three times less energy than a xenon projector, producing less heat and thus reducing ventilation requirements.

That's all well and good, but what is this famous screen worth? We had the opportunity to test this experiment for the film The Three Musketeers: d'Artagnan.

A few minutes after the commercials and other trailers, a short animated film highlights the multitude of brilliant colors and precise image details. Before our eyes, a veritable living painting takes shape, demonstrating the impressive quality of the image.

The film's projection plunges us into total immersion: cloak-and-dagger scenes follow on from one another, giving the impression of springing right into the room. Characters such as d'Artagnan and the musketeers seem more realistic and close-up, sometimes giving the sensation of a 3D projection without glasses.

If this experience is particularly well-suited to action films, owner Xavier Orsel (via his company Ciné Zéphyr) readily confides that this screen works wonders especially... on auteur films! Indeed, the contrast provided by the screen, combined with its extraordinary size, enables us to rediscover forgotten details... quite a program!

• To be read
• Cinema: which action movies and blockbusters should you see in theaters right now?
• Cinema: the most anticipated films in theaters at the end of 2023
• Cinema: which films will be released this Wednesday, May 1, 2024?

It's important to keep a close eye on the cinema 's dynamic programming (with many changes between new releases and the great classics).

In short, this beautiful cinema contributes to the revival of Asnières sur Seine. Already famous for its château (discover château en Seine at the moment) and the Louis Vuitton studio, the town recently made it into the TOP 50 cities to live in by 2023, according to a ranking by our colleagues in the JDD.

With the Rosa à l'Ouest, Nobert's Splash and now the Alcazar, Asnières is undoubtedly becoming a city to watch.