The film “Hippocrates” projected on a giant screen at the premiere of the Drive-In Festival in Bordeaux. - UGO AMEZ / SIPA

The Drive-In Festival, which wanted to transform several cities in France into open-air cinema, stops after a single experience, in Bordeaux, due to the reopening of the dark rooms on June 22. "We had always said that we would stop when the rooms reopened," said Mathieu Robinet, former managing director of Bacs films, one of the major independent studios in Europe, and initiator of the festival. "But we didn't think it would happen this early, we were a bit taken aback by the Prime Minister's announcements on Thursday."

“We are a bit cut in our momentum but I am happy for the rooms. I am not disappointed, so much the better if life resumes its course ", added Mathieu Robinet who had planned to decline the festival in Marseille, from June 10, then in Hauts-de-France before other destinations which were "in preparation".

"There was a tempo problem"

The organizer did not wish to maintain the Marseille dates, even if they were scheduled before June 22: "We would have been out of time to offer a" drive-in "when people can go out on the street, would not have been in the spirit of the moment, there was a tempo problem. " Mathieu Robinet also assured that his decision had nothing to do with the mixed reception that his project had received in mid-May from the National Federation of French Cinemas.

According to him, the ten screenings in nine days in Bordeaux, on the main Place des Quinconces, were a "great experience" and attracted 3,750 people, with titles like the Oscar-winning Parasite  or the comedy Le Grand Bain , screened on a giant screen of 190 m2, framed by a strict health protocol.

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