september-2011

how ironic that a project dubbed Silencio should
unleash such a noisy buzz on the internet and beyond.
Indeed for months now, fi lm buff s and bloggers alike
have been pouncing on every last scrap of info to feed
their oft en way-off -the-mark fantasies about the
forthcoming so-called “David Lynch venue” in Paris.
Such is the hype surrounding this mystery spot
(borrowing its cryptic moniker but little else from the
club featured in the psychological thriller Mulholland
Drive) that when invited to take a sneak preview peak
you brace yourself for a vision of pretentiousness that
strives and fails spectacularly to capture the dark,
oddball allure of Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet.
But all fears are allayed when you meet the jovial duo
of owner Arnaud Frisch, 37 – who also runs French new
wave techno label Savoir-Faire – and designer Raphaël
Navot, 34, for whom this is clearly an ambitious labour
of love (costing €3.3m), at a time when many are
ringing the death knell for Paris nightlife.
Moving through the maze of rooms with ambiances as
distinctive as scenes from a movie, including a concert/
dance fl oor space, art library and 24-seat cinema
alternately swathed in dramatic red, black and gold
tones, you catch small Lynchian touches winking at you:
a surreal forest that’s actually a smoking room; mirrors
creating optical illusions and lending a voyeuristic,
dreamlike feel throughout; and an etching drawn by the
director used as the basis for the pattern of the carpet.
And as in many of Lynch’s fi lms, it’s hard to discern
exactly what era you’re in. “I like to describe the style as
nostalgic future,” says the usually soft -spoken designer,
who when ribbed about whether he’s been dropping any
heavy hints to the American director about helping to
create the set of his next movie, loudly guff aws: “I
would love that! Because it would take less than three
years to do and there’s no reality to deal with!”
The biggest chunk of reality he came up against was
the sheer amount of digging needed to expand this
underground space to realise Lynch’s vision.
Nevertheless, it was important to keep as much as
possible of the original cellar. Silencio’s location is
actually that of the former newspaper printers, at 142
rue Montmartre, where, in 1898, a left -leaning newspaper
called L’Aurore published Zola’s famous “J’Accuse”
letter on the front page. More practically, it’s below
another Frisch venue, the fl ourishing Social Club.
“The way we worked with Lynch is that he made the
general scenography of the space aft er being given a 3D
map of it and I interpreted it into a physical design. We
had an exchange that was totally confi dential. Later I
would take this and work with a big group of architects
and artisans to see what was possible. There were
thousands of emails back and forth, hundreds of
meetings, with us fl ying to LA and Lynch coming to
Paris. The longest conversation that we had was about
elegance, conveying it in a way that wasn’t obvious.”
Frisch for his part still seems vaguely bemused that
94 metropolitan
Sleek glamour
with a touch
of darkness:
rest rooms
above, bar
areas below
Une ambiance
étudiée dans
le bar et…
les toilettes