But other old movie theaters here complicate the glossy portrait. That includes the Egg, an old movie house on prime property that preservationists want to save, which is slated for demolition to make room for the high-rises that have turned downtown Beirut into a generic Dubai. It also includes the smaller neighborhood cinema where the police arrested 36 men last month and subjected them to anal probes to test if they were gay.

Old movie theaters here, it turns out, are not just aging structures that conjure up an earlier era. They also reflect the conflicting versions of Beirut that are always competing for prominence, like the political parties and militias that fight for power.

Mohammed Soueid, a Lebanese film director and author of a book about cinema history in Lebanon, sees the old movie theaters as an example of what he calls “the big lie” of Lebanon, the idea that diversity itself (the miniskirted woman beside the veiled) signals success.

“You have a multifactional society with something like 17 different religions,” he said. “This model is not functional and we have paid a heavy price for it.”

Theaters once played a more unifying role. Lebanon lived under French control from 1920 to 1943, and the lingering influence of France, along with the magnetism of Hollywood, led Beirut to what many here still consider a golden age of moviegoing.