La Baleine, in Marseille, opened for a special screening as part of the #openLesCinémas operation -

C. Delabroy / 20 Minutes

  • The La Baleine cinema in Marseille took part, along with around twenty other venues in France, in the # Open the cinemas!

  • There are strong concerns about the future of the distribution of more confidential films.

    “The longer we delay reopening, the more difficult it will be for the most vulnerable,” says one director.

“We like the seats behind!

".

After months of forced abstinence, habits seem to quickly take over this Sunday, for this special session at La Baleine.

This independent cinema of the Cours Ju in Marseille participates, like twenty others in France, in the national operation # Open the cinemas.

Its director Thomas Ordonneau, at the head of the Shellac production company, plays the forerunners.

No question of checking the tickets - seats are free - but to punctuate the entries and recall the rules of the sanitary protocol: freezing before entering the room, a free seat between each group of spectators, and of course wearing the mask required.

"We were at the last session before confinement, see

Boy Rag

at the Varieties, we are here today to participate in a dynamic, in an awareness campaign," smiles Chantal, 69, before taking his place, delighted, in the room.

She came with a friend, who subscribed to the La Baleine newsletter, and managed to land the precious sesame.

The thirty places open for reservation quickly left after the announcement of this special screening of Régis Sauder's film,

I liked to live there

, which follows in the footsteps of novelist Annie Ernaux in Cergy.

La Baleine, in Marseille, opened for a special screening as part of the #openLesCinémas operation - C. Delabroy / 20 Minutes

A "collective fight" for places of culture

“It was important to be there, continues the director who came as a neighbor.

It is not a corporatist fight, it is a collective fight for the opening of places of culture, which echoes what is happening with the occupations in the theaters.

"The longer we wait for the reopening of theaters, the more difficult it will be for the most vulnerable to show their films, it will always be the same five headliners that we will see," he adds.

At his side, Thomas Ordonneau predicts that large distributors will come to see small venues like La Baleine.

He does the count: with 15 films released on average each week on the independent circuit, more than 400 films are waiting to be discovered by an audience.

A traffic jam that risks having a cascading impact on the number of future productions.

244 days off

This weekend, it has been a year since all theaters closed their doors for the first time, cumulating 244 days of shutdown since.

"It is starting to take a long time, and it is being done without dialogue with the Ministry of Culture," says Thomas Ordonneau to the spectators who responded present for the operation # Open the cinemas.

There is no question of occupying the premises over time, just of expressing anger and showing that "the public as well as the rooms can be very disciplined."

"

"My wife is a teacher, she spends her days in a class with 40 kids, but she cannot take them to the cinema, there is no epidemiological consistency, there is just a question of choice", regrets Régis Sauder .

In the background, clusters of people of all ages are enjoying this sunny Sunday in Cours Ju square.

No need for editing, so that these two successive images speak for themselves.

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  • Marseilles

  • Covid 19

  • Cinema

  • Culture

  • Movie theater

  • Coronavirus