Paris (AFP)

"It's a great day of joy!": Moviegoers found their way to dark cinemas in France on Monday, on the first day of the reopening of cinemas after a hundred days of closure, with new health rules.

"I've been waiting for this for weeks. For me, it's really a day of celebration," says Edouard Feinstein, 52. "I will see any film in any order. It is so good to be there", adds this film buff already posted around 9:00 am in front of the MK2 Library cinema in Paris, even before the opening.

The vast majority of the 2,000 cinemas in France reopen this week, from Monday for some, Wednesday for others, with new health rules provided by the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF) in a guide.

Hydroalcoholic gel, open doors, reception staff wearing masks and trained in barrier gestures, armchairs left vacant on each side of spectators or groups of spectators, spaced sessions to avoid crossing paths, sale of tickets on the internet or privileged regular disinfection of premises: everything is done to welcome and reassure spectators.

- Midnight sessions -

Another measure: the limitation to 50% of the rate of filling of the rooms, which the Minister of Culture however announced the lifting. "There is no longer a 50% gauge limitation" for cinemas and concert halls, said Franck Riester on Sunday, even if this measure remained widely applied Monday morning in theaters.

"For the moment, we will remain at a 50% gauge even if it has just been released. We want to offer the best conditions to the spectators so that they can be reassured by feeling in total safety," explained the director of the cinema. of the 5 Caumartins in Paris, where 120 film buffs offered themselves a session from 00:01.

The Pathé Gaumont cinemas, the first circuit in France with 903 screens, also offered a midnight screening in the night of Sunday to Monday in two Parisian cinemas, a cinema in Lyon, another in Toulouse and one in Rennes, to celebrate the reunion with their audience around two films in preview, the South Korean thriller "Lucky Strike" and the French comedy by Jan Kounen "My cousin".

The CGR network, which has 73 complexes throughout France, offered it a tariff offer at 5 euros per place for two weeks.

"Today, we already have 20,000 reservations," said AFP David Scantamburlo, marketing director of CGR. "We are rather confident about the attendance, and that confirms us in the idea that the cinema missed the French."

- "turn on the light" -

"We feel the spectators ready to return," also believes Nathanaël Karmitz, president of the board of directors of MK2, which has 12 cinemas and 68 screens in Paris. "Cinema is light in the city, so turning on the light makes us extremely happy."

According to a Médiamétrie poll published Wednesday, 18.7 million French people have declared that they intend to go to the cinema in the next four weeks.

Happy with the idea of ​​reopening their theaters, cinema operators oscillate between "enthusiasm" and "anxiety", according to Richard Patry, the president of the FNCF, who launched a communication campaign with the watchword "All at the cinema "for this reopening.

"We clearly know that the hardest part is ahead of us," he told AFP. "This is truly the year of all dangers."

According to FNCF estimates, for all cinema operators, the crisis and the cessation of activity represents nearly 60 million lost admissions (from the beginning of March to the end of June compared to previous years), i.e. loss of almost 400 million euros.

© 2020 AFP