Cinémas Diagonal

Cinémas Diagonal (commonly called Le Diagonal or le Diago) is an art-et-essai cinema operator based in Montpellier, France. It was founded in 1983 by Antoine Pereniguez, a former projectionist at the Utopia cinemas in Avignon, who became its manager, director and programmer. The first Diagonal site opened on 1 June 1983 in the Celleneuve district of Montpellier with a screening of the animated film Le Roi et l'Oiseau. The cinema is classified as "art et essai" and is known for showing auteur and independent films alongside a selection of mainstream foreign films in their original subtitled versions. Over the decades Diagonal expanded and contracted across several Montpellier neighbourhoods, operating venues such as Diagonal Centre, Diago-Paillade, Diagonal Campus and Diagonal Celleneuve, and at one point also cinemas in Sète and Paris. In the late 1990s, when the multiplex operator Gaumont announced a new cinema at Odysseum in eastern Montpellier, Diagonal initially opposed the project but later accepted Gaumont's offer of the six-screen Capitole complex in the city centre. Since 2007 Diagonal has operated a single six-screen cinema, the Capitole, located at 5 rue de Verdun between the Place de la Comédie and the Saint-Roch railway station. The business has had a turbulent corporate history. In April 2006 the company Diagonal SARL, which ran the Centre, Campus and Celleneuve screens, entered judicial reorganisation with a deficit of 350,000 euros; the separate Transversal SARL, which managed Diagonal Capitole, was not affected. On 2 May 2007 Diagonal SARL was placed in judicial liquidation: Diagonal Centre and Diagonal Celleneuve closed, while Diagonal Campus was taken over by the Utopia cinemas. The Diagonal today belongs to a network of six art-et-essai cinemas owned by the film production company Haut et Court. Diagonal remains a fixture of Montpellier's independent film scene, offering a programme of art-house releases, foreign-language films in original version, events and a weekly newsletter, with new screenings announced each Tuesday. In early May 2026 the cinema closed its doors for an announced five-month period to carry out major renovation works.

Le Diagonal was founded in 1983 by Antoine Pereniguez, who had worked as a projectionist at the Utopia cinemas in Avignon in 1981 and 1982. He established his own cinema in Montpellier and became its manager, director and programmer. The first site, in the Celleneuve district, opened on 1 June 1983 with a screening of the animated film Le Roi et l'Oiseau. The cinema was classified as "art et essai" and focused mainly on art-house films, while also showing some mainstream foreign films in original subtitled versions. During the 1990s, when a Gaumont multiplex was announced at Odysseum in eastern Montpellier, Diagonal was initially among the opponents of the municipal-backed project. It later withdrew its opposition after an offer from Gaumont, which proposed transferring one of its two city-centre complexes, the Capitole (six screens), to Diagonal. Because the Gaumont Comédie and Multiplexe cinemas did not wish to show original-version films, Diagonal accepted the offer in order to present more films over longer runs. Screening mainstream films such as The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man in original version was intended to attract a new audience. In the early 2000s, the independent Le Royal cinema and the Gaumont cinemas decided to compete with Diagonal by showing some original-version films, particularly the most commercially promising titles by directors such as Pedro Almodóvar or Ken Loach. In April 2006 the company Diagonal SARL, which included the Centre, Campus and Celleneuve screens, entered judicial reorganisation with a deficit of 350,000 euros. The company Transversal SARL, which managed Diagonal Capitole, was not affected by this reorganisation. On 2 May 2007 Diagonal SARL was placed in judicial liquidation: Diagonal Centre and Diagonal Celleneuve closed, while Diagonal Campus was taken over by the Utopia cinemas. At that site a renovation was undertaken for an opening in September of the same year, preserving the spirit of alternative and independent programming. The SARL Utopia Diagonal Campus, created for the occasion, became in January 2015 the SCOP Utopia Sainte-Bernadette, named after the parish where the cinema is located. Diagonal has had to close six cinemas in total. Four were in Montpellier: Diagonal Centre on Place Saint-Denis, open from 1993 to 2007 in place of the former pornographic cinema Le Rex, which later served as a market during the reconstruction of the Laissac hall; Diago-Paillade in the La Paillade district, open in 1989 and closed in 1995, later abandoned and transformed in 2018 by the municipality into the Maison pour tous Louis-Feuillade; Diagonal Campus near Paul-Valéry University, sold in 2007 to the Utopia group; and Diagonal de Celleneuve, opened in 1983 in place of the Vox cinema which dated at least from the 1950s, closed in 2006 and bought by the municipality in 2007, with the city opening the municipal cinema Nestor Burma to the public on 12 February 2011. Outside Montpellier, two cinemas closed in Sète, and one in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, the Cinéma Europa, closed due to management problems. Since 2007 Diagonal has operated a single six-screen cinema, the Capitole, ceded by Gaumont in 1998. It is located in Montpellier at 5 rue de Verdun, between the Place de la Comédie and the Saint-Roch railway station. The Diagonal currently belongs to a network of six art-et-essai cinemas owned by the film production company Haut et Court. In early May 2026 the cinema closed its doors for an announced period of five months due to major renovation works.

• 2026

  In early May the cinema closes for an announced five months of major renovation works.

• 2018

  The former Diago-Paillade site is transformed by the municipality into the Maison pour tous Louis-Feuillade.

• 2015

  SARL Utopia Diagonal Campus becomes SCOP Utopia Sainte-Bernadette in January.

• 2011

  The municipality opens the Nestor Burma cinema on 12 February at the former Celleneuve site.

• 2007

  On 2 May Diagonal SARL is placed in judicial liquidation; Diagonal Centre and Celleneuve close, Diagonal Campus is taken over by Utopia; Diagonal begins operating only the Capitole.

• 2006

  Diagonal SARL enters judicial reorganisation in April with a deficit of 350,000 euros; Diagonal Celleneuve closes.

• 1998

  Gaumont cedes the six-screen Capitole complex to Diagonal.

• 1995

  Diago-Paillade closes.

• 1993

  Diagonal Centre opens on Place Saint-Denis in place of the former Rex cinema.

• 1989

  Diago-Paillade opens in the La Paillade district.

• 1983

  Antoine Pereniguez founds Le Diagonal in Montpellier; the first site opens on 1 June in Celleneuve with Le Roi et l'Oiseau.

Independent art-et-essai cinema offering auteur and original-version films in central Montpellier.

• Art-et-essai film screenings

• Foreign films in original subtitled version

• Cinema tickets and memberships

• Film events and newsletter

1. 1Accueil — Diagonal-Capitolecinediagonal.com
2. 2Cinémas Diagonal — Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Le Diagonal — Wikipédiafr.wikipedia.org