He worked in a New York skyscraper in Central Park, spent half his life in the air, went to the Ritz in Paris to follow the progress of work on La Pagode, the legendary cinema in the 7th arrondissement which he bought in 2017, for 16 million euros. It will reopen in April 2025 following three years of work. “It’s very exciting for me. We are opening just next door, at 57 rue Babylone, a world cinema cultural center that I imagine as a place for dialogue, for education”confides the one who orchestrated the work from La Croix-Valmer, during the pandemic.
706e world fortune
Currently, his company Cohen Media Group broadcasts, on American soil, the 3e Emmanuel Carrère’s film, “Ouistreham” (with Juliette Binoche), following a launch on August 11 in New York and Los Angeles. In a few months, Charles S. Cohen will fly to Berlin, to the international film festival, for the screening of The Perfumed Hill of Abderrahmane Sissako (caesarized in 2015 for Timbuktu), which he co-produced. “A long time friend“, assures the elegant billionaire, 706eworld fortune according to the latest Forbes ranking (this is estimated at 3.7 billion dollars, editor’s note), who has made cinema his passion and his second job.
Being a winegrower, a dream come true
But as the harvest approached, Charles S. Cohen dreamed of being a Provençal winegrower, he surveyed his vines at the Château de Chausse, at La Croix-Valmer in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. A “bijou” that the American billionaire offered himself, in 2016, to reconnect with a French passion for cinema, the French art of living and the Côte d’Azur. Saint-Tropez and Antibes, which he discovered at the age of eighteen during a trip with his parents, the landscapes filmed by the filmmakers of La Nouvelle Vague, Truffaut and Godard in particular, who attracted him to France. “I have always been magnetized by French culture, the beauty of women, beautiful clothes, museums, art and at the right age, wine“, he advances.
At the Château de Chausse, Charles S. Cohen is served: 50 hectares of forest, including 15ha of vines on a hill, a 19th century bastidee century located two kilometers from the beach of Cavalaire. A resort for his family, his wife Clo and their two children, whom he wants to place in the firmament of major wine tourism destinations. Having made his fortune in real estate, he might have chosen Bordeaux, or the more prestigious Burgundy, but he preferred a rosé vineyard. “I am very pragmatic, I do not claim to be a great wine expert, nor the desire to produce great red wines (the domain is famous for its red wines, editor’s note). I thought the rosé was very chic without being pretentious, and on the way to excellence”assures the one who wants to marry, in La Croix-Valmer, his passions for cinema and wine.
It is moreover by a friend who works in the film company Pathé that the file of Chausse arrived on his desk. “I look at the photos, I went wow!” As for La Pagode, Charles S. Cohen acquired it without making the trip. But he puts the means to reincarnate it. “A jewel requires care and love over time”, assures the entrepreneur. After the complete renovation of the cellar and the vat rooms, the transition of the vineyard to organic, Chausse reopened in May, following three years of work.
Charles S. Cohen plans to acquire a few additional hectares, to establish the reputation of the estate’s wines, the management of which he has entrusted to Franck Bailleul, himself supported by the consultant oenologist Florence Berlemont, founder of the Provencal Agronomy Cabinet . “We want to make this place very exclusive, it’s a journey of education and love to discover the wines of Provence”, depicts the billionaire, in search of a director for the realization of a short presentation film. A trailer, to launch the success story of the Château de Chausse.
Photo Florian Escoffier.
Biography
1952: Born in New York State (USA).
1983: Charles S. Cohen inherits the family company Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, whose real estate empire he quadruples to reach 12,000 m2. Most of his fortune is made up of high-end office buildings in New York and 600 design centers in several cities. It also owns luxury brands such as Harrys of London, Savile Row tailor Richard James and luggage company T. Anthony.
2008: the company Cohen Media Group, which he created, distributes French-language films in the United States, including Mustang and Timbuktu and won its first foreign language Oscar in 2017 with the Iranian drama, The Salesman by Asghar Farhadi. CMG owns Landmark Theater which operates 45 cinemas in the USA, and Curzon Cinemas in the UK (13 cinemas).
2014: Charles S. Cohen takes over one of New York’s most iconic cinemas, the reopened Quad Cinema in Manhattan. The same year, he was named Knight of the National Order of Merit by François Hollande, for his efforts to promote French cinema and art.
