When the fashion is to accumulate rooms in the same building, Michel Laporta resists.
He operates three theaters in… three different villages.
For him, cinema is first and foremost a family affair.
The Rex in Ille-sur-Têt, the Majestic in Boulou and the Cérétan in Céret were run by his grandparents in the 1940s, then his parents.
“At the time everyone went to the cinema, there was no television, there were not as many cars which allowed people to move around, to escape.
So they came to the dark rooms.
Imagine, in Ille-sur-Têt, there were three cinemas in the village!
»
If he developed a complementary activity, a clothing store in Toulouges, Michel Laporta wanted to continue the adventure in his turn.
Something to occupy your time, especially at 70!
“I manage to offer a screening approximately every three weeks in each of the cinemas.
It doesn't necessarily do much good to do more because, in each village, it's always the same group that takes part in the activities, so they can't be everywhere,” he smiles.
“I’m waiting to see how the films do”
However, he did not forget to invest, helped by the income generated by the entries (the price of which remains affordable, around 7 euros).
The Rex theater was completely renovated 20 years ago, and digital projection was installed there in 2013. “I also developed a traveling cinema to go there to villages where there is no cinema.
I do the screenings in the village halls, outdoors, it depends.
» And when it comes to choosing the films he screens, how does he go about it?
“I wait a bit to see how they do when they come out and then I choose.
» He screens the feature films approximately three weeks after their national release, “that gives me time to see what is happening around the film” and avoid getting drunk during the screenings!
The Rex, in Ille-sur-Têt, was renovated around twenty years ago and equipped with digital projection in 2013. LP/Yann Kerveno
If he manages to bring together between 50 and 100 spectators per screening, he misses the films of yesteryear.
“Before there were the locomotives, Belmondo, De Funès.
Today I find that the scenarios are not original enough.
When you finish your work day, do you really want to go see films that tell stories of suicide or divorce?
» Not without emotion, he now plans to part with his cinemas.
He tried to sell the one in Boulou and would like the town halls to buy them back, so that the rooms can continue to exist.