The Prime Minister receives Thursday morning several representatives of the cultural sector, hit hard by the health crisis and which suffers from the curfew.

The vice-president of the French association of arthouse cinemas and the director of the Porte Saint-Martin theater shared their demands at the microphone of Europe 1.

"We still don't understand."

For Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy, vice-president of the French association of arthouse cinemas, the government's refusal to issue places of culture with an exemption allowing them to remain open after the curfew is incomprehensible.

"The cinemas are safe places, President Macron said it himself," she argued Thursday at the microphone of Europe 1, while the Prime Minister receives in the morning several representatives of the sector. 

"We are working at a loss"

"Today, we are working at a loss", underlines Jean Robert-Charier, director of the Porte Saint-Martin theater, guest of Europe 1. Before the curfew, he was already struggling to fill the 650 places currently available ( against 1,100 in normal times).

We only play at his place on Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 5 p.m.

The performances on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were abandoned: during the week, too few people would have responded at the end of the afternoon.

"One more hour is the only way for us to do our job," he says.

Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy adds: "We ask the government that the cinema ticket serve as proof of a time exemption."

A solution, however, rejected by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the week. 

"Culture is something vital"

Jean Castex was very clear: the rules must apply to everyone in the same way.

Representatives of the cultural sector, however, hope that Thursday's meeting, whose agenda has not been communicated, will be a game-changer.

"We have serious arguments. When we consider that culture is not economically vital, it is wrong: the cinema represents a lot in terms of payroll and turnover. And then culture is something vital. It is on our own survival that the maintenance of cultural plurality depends ", defends Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy.

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For the moment, its Parisian cinema, the Grand Action, survives only thanks to aid from the State and the local authority.

"Without these subsidies, we would be dead. And a lot of arthouse cinema is in a critical situation."

To get out of this, she calls on the spectators: "Come, come to our rooms! We need you to continue."