Four partners opened the Collective Fantasy Cinema on this site in 1976, and the Santa Fe theater it became now bears the name Jean Cocteau Cinema. In 1976 four partners — Lynne Cohen, Mary Hether, Anne Lewis and Richard Szanyi — opened the first theater on this site. In 1983 Brent Kliewer acquired and renovated the house, rechristening it as a tribute to the famed French poet, novelist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau; as the National Observer put it, Cocteau was “of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art.
The theatre closed in 2006 and was later purchased and renovated by novelist and producer George R. R. Martin in 2013; it is currently owned by him. Today the cinema is more than movies: you’ll find author talks and book-signings, a small display of signed books for sale, burlesque, magic and variety shows, art exhibitions and concerts alongside its film screenings. Stand here and imagine the curtain rising across generations — from the Collective Fantasy founders to a renovated art house carrying Cocteau’s name and Martin’s stewardship.
Your ticket here now buys author talks, burlesque, and film alike.