Facing the big screen which already displays a prevention message, 380 unoccupied seats and a dead silence: the UGC Ciné Cité cinema in the 19th arrondissement of Paris is methodically preparing to welcome spectators again Monday, after more than three months of closure for cause of coronavirus.
Respect for barrier gestures, social distancing, limitation of theaters to 50% of their capacity: faced with the sanitary measures imposed by the authorities, the cinema with 14 theaters had to adapt.
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"On June 22, all the pleasure of the cinema found" , is displayed outside on an advertising screen. In front of the complex, the Food Truck is already in place, the program displayed, but the metal curtain is still lowered, pending the return of fans of the seventh art.
While approaching the terminals of purchase, bands on the ground invite the spectators to respect the measures of physical distance. A few meters away, leaning against the wall and on the doors of the establishment, dispensers of hydroalcoholic gel were installed.
Favor booking
The terminals are tactile, "they will be cleaned every 30 minutes or so, like the escalator ramps," said AFP Natacha Bouchaudon, director of cinema. "We also prefer booking which is now free," she continues.
Other precautions: the doors will remain open "as much as possible" and an arrow on the ground has been added to prevent "that the incoming and outgoing flows cross".
Inside the establishment, messages calling for compliance with sanitary measures are omnipresent, on posters, but also on the floor. In places of contact between employees and spectators, such as where you can buy popcorn or other treats, plexiglass windows have been added.
"Wearing a mask will be mandatory for employees," said the director of the premises. However, it will only be recommended for the public. Control of the ticket will be visual, "while it was torn to validate it" , before the epidemic.
The large spectator reception hall is plunged into silence. Tables and chairs have been removed to allow more space between users. The bar stools have been condemned.
The feeling of emptiness is accentuated upstairs, in room 13 of the complex, one of the two largest in the cinema. On the screen already appears the message addressed to the spectators for the reopening: "To protect myself and others, I leave a free chair between myself or my group and the other spectators."
Capacity reduced by half
In the coming weeks, the rooms will be limited to 50% of their capacity. Despite all these precautionary measures, the director of the establishment is delighted to open and says "impatient to find our spectators, so that the cinema becomes a place of life, sharing and conviviality" .
Read also: At the cinema on June 22: ask for the program!
For Florian Malicet, director of cinema operations, the reopening is also a relief after several weeks of partial unemployment. "I'm very very happy," he says. At the beginning, we were not sure where we were going but we were reassured about the protocol ”.
“The only question I had was how to enforce all of the recommendations. When we saw that we had the supports, it came naturally, ”he says.
The week of June 22, the cinema will offer an eclectic program, around thirty films, including new ones, films that were in the process of being broadcast when the cinemas closed in March, and a whole additional program including a selection of the best films of 2019 and classics of the seventh art.