Bobigny (AFP)

Faced with opposition from film directors and elected officials, the community of Est Ensemble, which includes nine municipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis, announced Wednesday to have waived the request to deprogram the film "J'accuse" of Roman Polanski de its six public cinemas.

Tuesday night, the socialist president of the community, Gerard Cosme, had announced at a territorial council this decision, while Mr. Polanski is the subject of a new charge of rape from a French photographer.

After hearing "the position of the elected officials last night", "I heard this morning directors of" cinemas, he said Wednesday morning to the media. "I talked to them about artistic freedom and after hearing everyone, in my soul and conscience, I maintain the programming of + J'accuse +" by asking that there be debates accompanying the broadcast of the film. he added.

He recalls that "personally", he calls not to go see this movie.

His initial decision, supported by elected right and left, was submitted Wednesday to the directors of the six cinemas concerned. The latter had the possibility of not applying it.

"I think that by programming this film I do not endorse all rapists in France," said Annie Thomas, director of the cinema Le Trianon in Romainville.

"We ask from now on to our elected representatives the list of the film-makers of which we will not have any more the right to program the films and the definition of their criteria", had for its part written on Facebook Stéphane Goudet, the director of Méliès, in Montreuil . "Is a committee of verification of the morality of the programmed artists planned, since the individual freedom of the spectators is not enough?", The director had wondered.

"I am also deeply convinced that never censorship of a work will plead for any cause whatsoever," Alexie Lorca, the city's cultural assistant, also wrote on the social network.

For his part, the lawyer of the filmmaker, Hervé Temime told AFP "appalled by this decision that Mr. Polanski does not want to react."

With six cinemas and 13 screens, Est Ensemble is the "first network of public cinemas in France".

© 2019 AFP