About twenty cinemas plan to screen films in public this weekend to protest against the closure of theaters due to the health crisis.

Culture professionals are thus launching yet another appeal to the government, which for the moment remains deaf to their demands.

"We are bordering on disaster."

Twenty cinemas in France will defy the closing order this weekend, a "symbolic action" to demand from the government the reopening of dark rooms.

They closed for the first time just a year ago and only reopened between the two lockdowns.

"The longer we wait, the more complicated the return to theaters will be. Not to mention that there are 400 films on the shelves and waiting to be released", explains Gauthier Labrusse, director of the Luc cinema in Caen, at the microphone of Europe 1. It organizes three public sessions during the weekend. 

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The date of this joint action was not chosen at random.

"The day after the Caesars, the symbolism is there", emphasizes Gauthier Labrusse.

During the ceremony organized on Friday evening in a small committee, several personalities addressed Roselyne Bachelot - who was not present in the room - to demand a reopening schedule. 

"My children can go to Zara and not to the cinema… It is incomprehensible! We need a political will for the cinema to continue to evolve, you must bear this responsibility as minister", launched Stéphane Demoustier in receiving the César for best adaptation for

La fille au bracelet

.

Actions "complementary" to occupations of theaters

The actions of this weekend, "completely complementary" to the theater occupations which are multiplying in France, should make it possible to denounce "the stubborn refusal of the government to reopen places of culture", Clément Schneider said Thursday, co- president of the Association of independent cinema for its distribution (Acid).

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If this savage reopening is not enough to make the government react, Gauthier Labrusse intends to continue the mobilization.

"If things drag on too long, if announcements are not made quickly, and that is what we are trying to provoke, we will have to find more radical solutions."