On October 28, all cinemas in France lowered the curtain a second time, after the announcement of the second confinement.
Since then, the dark rooms, which had remained desperately empty, were slowly preparing behind the scenes for a scheduled reopening on December 15.
Like all museums and theaters ... Only the press conference of Prime Minister Jean Castex Thursday evening showered all the hopes of the cultural world to resume an activity before January 7, 2021 (if the health context allows it ...).
Fabien Houi, director of the independent cinema Le Brady in the 10th arrondissement of Paris is as though sounded.
It was in front of his television set that he heard the bad news.
“No one warned us.
Neither the unions nor the National Federation of French cinemas were consulted upstream, ”annoys the manager.
Three weeks of work ruined on the floor
Wandering like “a ghost” in the middle of the red armchairs, sitting in front of a black screen, Fabien fears that his independent colleagues will not survive this new halt.
“Obviously, we are sad, disappointed, disillusioned.
Here, we had worked for several weeks to prepare for December 15th.
All our work is done.
We had also invested money and we find ourselves once again with our beak in the water.
It is a financial drama for many of us.
Some cinemas will not recover ”.
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At the theater, we were preparing to reopen and then ...
In an attempt to pass the pill, the government has promised new aid to the cultural sector.
The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot even assured Friday that she would negotiate an additional envelope of 35 million euros.