AVENIDA BRIGADEIRO LUÍS ANTONIO, 411
FORMER PARAMOUNT THEATRE
CURRENT RENAULT THEATRE
BUILT BY ARNALDO MAIA LELLO, 1929

The Paramount Theatre was the first movie theatre to screen talkies in Latin America. Inaugurated in 1929, the “Enchanted Palace” reached its apogee in the 1930s and 1940s and even hosted great carnival balls and several TV musical shows in the 1960s.

On its façade, everything seems (to want) to speak. Female figures, present in two large bas-reliefs flanking the main entrance, reproduce the movements of dance and music. The remarkable capitals of the columns display figures with gaping mouths, further enhancing the effect, and even the mouths of the lions and mascarons of the crowning are open, not hiding their will to speak utter sounds.