"This ticket, I will keep it all the time. He is a collector! »1 pm, high of the Champs-Élysées at the exit of the cinema Le Balzac. Dominique takes off his mask, stuffs it in his pocket, then rummages in his bag to extract his movie ticket which she hands in front of the camera. This retiree from a large cosmetics firm, a film buff frustrated for three months, and who lives in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, would not have missed the much-awaited meeting of the reopening of theaters.
She set her sights on "The Shadow of Stalin", one of the four films on the program in this room on the independent circuit. On the Champs, the large complexes have not yet raised their grids. The Marignan will only open at 4 p.m. But at Priscilla Cassati, director of Balzac, there was no question of dawdling in the schedules. And she did well. Twenty people at the first screening for the film by Agniezka Holland, with James Norton and Vanessa Kirby.
VIDEO. Reopening of cinemas: reservation, wearing of mask and distancing from the program
For a week now, with her team, Priscilla has been refining this solar return. Added on the glass doors funny posters inviting spectators to remember the barrier gestures. For example, she diverted that of the film "Being and having", by Nicolas Philibert who shows a student deploying his handcuffs: "Being and having ... clean hands". The three other films, more pointed, all also won votes.
"It is encouraging," comments Franck Lombard-Platet, general manager of the Etoile Cinémas group who came to take the temperature. At the same time, Franck opens new rooms in Bethune, Vichy and Chelles and believes hard as once in a while, whether it's good weather or not. "But it is also up to us to observe people's reactions in order to be able to adapt to their expectations and make them a relevant programming proposal. Which can also go through "more films".
A few streets below, on the other bank of the avenue, Louis Merle, manager of the Lincoln, and his operator Alex, smile with all their eyes. The five films on the program all have audiences. Between five and three sessions for each.
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In the figurehead, “Filles de Joie”, by Frédéric Fonteyne and Anne Paulicevich, will have around fifteen clients. Among them, Cyrille, who works at the Ministry of Ecology, comes from Cergy-Pontoise. He took his day so as not to miss this much awaited moment. As for Louis, he chose to increase the attentions for his flock by establishing a "Youth" rate at 4.90 euros and a "Caregiver" rate at 8 euros.
Mask not compulsory
Inside, the mask is "recommended but not mandatory," he says. If customers wish to purchase it, they can purchase one at the counter. The good sign, in this still undecided period, he still rejoices, it is the preview organized the day before, at midnight, at the 5 Caumartin cinema which is, with the 7 Parnassians, in its purse. One hundred and thirty entries for “Les Parfums”, by Grégory Magne, with Emmanuelle Devos! There are numbers that smell so good ...
Place de l'Odéon, in the sacro-Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the MK2 complex also transformed its traditional Wednesday into Monday. Between four and five screenings for five films showing. The small cleaning ceremony between each screening involves "one less session than usual".
Nevertheless, from the start, there were "about fifty people in all the rooms". And if, in this very early afternoon, the numbers are less important, the line of reservations augurs for a satisfactory renaissance after so many weeks of "frustration".