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62 BY SHELBY HODGE PORTRAIT SASHA MASLOV L e Figaro shrewdly dubbed real estate magnate Charles Cohen "an American in Paris" when he whirled through the City of Light last spring on a mission to save one of France's oldest and most beautiful cinemas, La Pagode, in the 7th arrondissement. The New York-based billionaire — who owns 12 million square feet of real estate in New York, Texas, Southern California, and South Florida, including Decorative Center Houston; the D&D Building in NYC; Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida; (continued on page 64) MOVIE OSCAR and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood — was indulging his longstanding passion for movies and historic theaters. In September, he reopened the Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village and purchased the 84-year-old Larchmont House in Westchester County, adding to a growing stable of theaters focusing on art-house, independent, and foreign films. Cohen, a frequent visitor t o H o u s t o n t o o v e r s e e h i s 550,000-square-foot Decorative Center, formed Cohen Media Group in 2008 for the distribution of foreign and art-house films. CMG is now the largest distributor of French films in the United States. Since 2008, he has distributed five films that received Academy Award nominations, as well as the Iranian drama The Salesman, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film last February. Cohen was lead executive producer of 2008's Frozen River, which received two Academy Award nominations and won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. In 2015, he bought Merchant Ivory Productions and went about restoring, remastering, and redistributing films including Heat and Dust, Maurice, and Howards End. He owns 800 titles under the Cohen Film Collection, including the films of Buster Keaton. C o h e n , a v e r y young-looking a n d d a p p e r m i d - 6 0 s , i s c o n t i n u a l l y delving deeper into the film world. He's currently working in partnership with Emmy Award- winning producer Jason Blum on a film version of the 1960s novel Stoner. British film director Joe CHARLES COHEN'S OBSESSION WITH FILM The Buster Keaton archives were acquired by Cohen Film Collection. maker taker