The continuous sound of raindrops echoes on the roof of the huge white stone building.
" Owl !
We are told bad weather for the whole week!
»Says Isabelle, from the marketing team.
At the Kinepolis de Lomme, in the suburbs of Lille, we are preparing to meet the public again this Wednesday, after 200 days of closure.
And between terraces or cinema, the weather seems to have chosen its camp.
Inside this multiplex, the largest in France with its 6,900 seats and 50,000 m2, the teams are on the verge of war. We are far from the anthill of opening days, when thousands of people pass through the doors and slip through the long corridors of gray carpet to make a canvas. But the place comes back to life, very slowly. In the large empty hall, Hippolyte, in his twenties, slips a poster of "Mandibles", Quentin Dupieux's latest film, behind a window. It will then be necessary to hang a new tarpaulin stamped "Fast and Furious 9", which has just announced its release for July 14, above the main entrance. Remove signs crossed out in one direction posted on each door. And finally proceed with the major cleaning of the site.
To read also “Goodbye idiots”, “Envole-moi”, “Slalom”, “OSS 117” ... for the reopening of cinemas, ask for the program!
Direction, the rooms.
In front of hundreds of empty armchairs, the face of Daniel Craig appears large on the screen.
Isabelle checks the sequence of the new trailers.
“We try to control that there is no catch in the image or the sound between two spots,” she explains.
The release of the next James Bond, "Dying can wait", scheduled for October, is still announced on April 8, 2020 ... The retouch is needed.
Further on, Gaëtan, drill in hand, fixes the back of a seat in the 4DX theater, a state-of-the-art installation that offers an immersive cinema experience, with dynamic armchairs and integrated water projections.
"It feels good to resume, slips the handyman.
We took it with philosophy, but six months is a long time.
You end up feeling useless.
"
Before the pandemic, Kinepolis had never known a day of closure.
LP / Olivier Arandel
In the projectionists' office, we chat, we take news from each other, scheduling the films for Wednesday.
"That's
Goodbye idiots
," says Cédric, pointing to a file on his computer screen, the timetable in one hand and a mouse in the other.
“A closure, here, we had never experienced that.
We are open every day!
We are lucky to be in France, and to continue to be paid, ”remarks Kris, projectionist in Lomme since the opening in 1996.
"We turned on all the projectors once a week"
Even if the 70 employees of the structure were placed on short-time work, the complex, which has stood for 25 years in the middle of this charmless shopping area, has never been at a complete standstill.
"We turned on all the projectors once a week for an hour to check that they were working," explains Franck Barrières, director of the place, which welcomes more than two million visitors a year, the highest attendance after the UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles , in Paris.
No question of noticing a breakdown on the day of the reopening!
"
"We can not wait for there to be noise again here", concludes Franck Barrières, director of Kinepolis in Lomme.
LP / Olivier Arandel
With a gauge of 35% of the public, then 65% on June 9, the director expects a smooth start, the first three weeks.
And only half of the staff have been called.
"It's a small start-up," says the boss, who employs 70 people.
But it is necessary.
The teams are fed up.
It is a great relief to finally see the end of the tunnel.
"
Will the public be there?
No worries.
Several screenings for the eagerly awaited Japanese cartoon "Demon Slayer" are already sold out on the first days of opening.
And others fill up quickly.
“We can't wait for there to be noise again here,” concludes Franck Barrières, pointing to the empty corridors.
In three weeks, without any indication to the contrary, the sale of food will be authorized again. We will then relight the house “poppeuse”, the Kinepolis in Lomme being one of the only cinemas in France to make its own popcorn. And the smell of sweet roasted corn, so typical of the place, will tickle the nostrils as soon as you enter. As in the days before.
