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How are you recommend porn theater? Steve Koltai, owner of the historic Cinéma L’Amour in Montreal, might start by asking you to watch it on your phone. “You want to see the latest movie out there? Watch it on your mobile phone. That’s not my business anymore,” he told IndieWire. “My business gives you social interaction, fulfilling a fantasy.”
That makes recommending Koltai’s setup for a movie out a little more complicated than your average midnight flick. Take a short walk to Cinéma L’Amour, and there is an immediate question of intent. Do you appreciate the crisp interior and the sense of danger from afar – or suggest an immersive experience that requires more conversation with a…partner? (Priest?) Hell, even an oversized endorsement of his gift shop can invite some very private inquiries around town.
“I would say that most of the people who buy our products have never been here,” a guide from Cinéma L’Amour told IndieWire this past summer, amid the 30th annual Fantasia International Film Festival. “But they like the fashion part.” Dakota Johnson was photographed rocking the porn theater merchandise. But in Québec’s largest city—which has its own local constellation of movie celebrities—the logo has a hometown meaning that doesn’t need Hollywood’s approval.
Koltai remembers being skeptical of his son Devyn’s proposal to sell tote bags. “We sold thousands, thousands of tote bags,” he said. “I didn’t realize how important tote bags were.”
The films still play, with the program changing every week, but they share the heart of Cinéma L’Amour with many other attractions. Tourists come in for a quick look around, and music fans sometimes come for raves and concerts. Yes, people masturbate and have sex here. But Koltai and the guide also mentioned special lesbian and trans community nights, as well as recycling rentals with a local women’s group. A treasurer called the mix of older patrons and artistic staff “half ‘Cheers,’ half ‘Cruising'”.
“You wouldn’t expect it for a porn movie type, but it turned out to be more than that,” the guide said.
There are plenty of ways to participate, and just as much room to wonder what everyone else is getting out of it. (Sending it in? Sorry.) It’s an amazing conservation project, no doubt. But for a taboo show business whose competition now fits inside the sponsor’s pocket, what exactly is being kept alive?
The venue now known as Cinéma L’Amour opened as the Globe in 1914, showing films and live entertainment in the heart of Montreal’s Jewish community. Yiddish films were among their offerings in the 1920s and 30s – but it was renamed Hollywood in 1932, and later went to adult titles such as Pussycat (!) in 1969 (!!). The beautiful horseshoe balcony and ornate interior survived the sultry programming trend, and it still gives the porn theater an undeniably regal feel today.
Before the Koltai family took over the place in 1981, Steve’s father, Ivan, had already expanded from distributing erotic films to showing them. In the 1970s, he built another adult cinema in Hull, Québec, about two and a half hours by car from Cinéma L’Amour. Koltai remembers tagging along on his father’s trips and seeing audiences treat the porn theater like a proper, fancy night out.
“Mom and dad and the adults dress up like they’re going to dinner, but they’re coming to see a movie,” he said. Customers arrived for the seven or nine o’clock show, with matinees on weekends. The audience dressed for the occasion, even though most of the actors… did not.
Advanced sex – and adult film Yes his own genre – means cultivating an audience willing to take advantage of someone else’s taste. In Montreal, Nicolas Archambault sees people experience long before they enter any kind of theater. “I think it was bought without our knowledge because we are a country of immigration,” said Fantasia’s director of Asian programming, who has spent 18 years working at the lovers’ festival.
When asked what makes the city embrace unfamiliar art, he pointed to the daily pleasures of living among different cultures: restaurants, music, and, yes, movies. Archambault described walking down a street where Caribbean music could blare to Lynyrd Skynyrd from a passing truck. Meeting someone else’s favorite becomes a normal part of the day here.
“It’s just normal,” Archambault said.
However, an open mind needs somewhere to practice, and reserving a designated space for an unfamiliar work gives the audience time to develop – without asking every film to justify the room. At Cinema L’Amour, freedom of experimentation also requires clear boundaries.
The couples section upstairs and the more open ones downstairsoffer different experiences. The posted rules, which are offered in English and French, express permission: “No’ means no—and silence also means no.” Koltai asks visitors to express their expectations and boundaries, but he acknowledges that people can feel violated and that staff are not always present or equipped to monitor events.
Keeping the doors open will also require some not-so-secret work. The property is owned by the Koltai family, where apartments include short-term rentals. Cinema staff help with laundry, cleaning, maintenance and guest needs – meaning that the staff behind L’Amour’s fantasy are fully owned to look after it on top of everything else.
“It’s only because we own the property that we can live,” Koltai said.
Cinéma L’Amour’s merchandise business reaches far beyond the city’s local film scene. The guide listed France, New Zealand, Australia and Japan among the destinations for orders during our visit, but it said that Trump’s tariffs had stopped shipments to the U.S. Koltai later confirmed that tariffs had affected the industry while clarifying that American orders continued.
“We’re still sending them,” he said, angrily.
Customers keep recommending more products, but Koltai preferred to manage the shirts, sweatshirts, and those damn tote bags that were already packed into the theater, first. (Suffice it to say, a porn place would have to be a full-service supplier of shower curtains to make head meat.) One shirt, however, means more to Koltai than most inventory. The cinema recently recreated a ring tee worn by Steve’s late mother in the early 1970s. Now it can show the picture to customers when someone thinks about buying it.
“She would be honored to know that we still continue,” he said, reflecting on the joy of turning a cute memory into an excuse to talk about his late mother.
Ivan, who is still alive at 93 when Steve spoke to IndieWire, wants the family business to survive. But Steve said his son had left the business six months before our interview; he explains that he relies heavily on a long-term administrative employee and other staff who care about the theater, at the moment. Being busy has not settled who will take over in the end: “Actually, I want to get out of it slowly,” he said. “I’m consumed by it because we’re busy, our merchandising is busy, our short-term rentals are busy.”
Koltai’s commitment to Cinéma L’Amour comes with a practical condition. “As long as I can keep it open and live and it’s possible,” he said, “I’ll keep it open.” Before hanging up the phone, he had one request about explaining the theater to strangers: “Just keep it a little secret, okay?”
Two Fantasia attendees who spoke to IndieWire on condition of anonymity were willing to describe their own journey. He was hoping to get a taste of the old adult theaters he had seen in documentaries. She had mostly heard gossip and read about it on Reddit.
A friendly concierge explained the situation and gave them a clean slate. They sat back to back in the couple’s balcony and proceeded from watching the screen to having sex alone. “Something about the charming red-lit environment brought me out,” she wrote. “We bought a bunch of cool branded merchandise to commemorate the experience and were on our way.”
Her partner had one note for the programmer: “If I could change one thing, it would be the film. It was basic contemporary pornography,” he said – still making it look like they would both come again.
