Bobigny (AFP)
Officials and directors of cinemas in Seine-Saint-Denis denounced on Wednesday a "censorship" after the decision of the community East Together to deprogramme the film "J'accuse" Roman Polanski of its six public cinemas.
This is a "premiere in France", criticized Stéphane Goudet, director of Le Méliès cinema in Montreuil, in a post on Facebook.
Tuesday evening, during a territorial council, Gerard Cosme, the PS president of the community East Ensemble, which includes nine cities of Seine-Saint-Denis, announced his decision to "deprogram" the film because of the new accusation of rape carried against his director.
This decision, supported by elected right and left, must be submitted Wednesday to the directors of the six cinemas concerned who have the opportunity not to apply it.
"We are now asking our elected representatives for the list of filmmakers whose films we will no longer be allowed to program and the definition of their criteria," continued the director of Méliès. "Is there a committee to check the morality of the scheduled artists, since the individual freedom of the spectators is not enough?"
"We also want to know what fate will be reserved for writers and painters convicted of crimes in East Ensemble libraries," he added. "In all likelihood, the books of Celine and Althusser, the DVDs of Max Linder, Brisseau, even Woody Allen (no longer need court decision), the records of Michael Jackson and the books on Caravaggio and Gauguin should be removed from shelves ".
In a Facebook post, PCF mayor of Montreuil, Patrice Bessac, also denounced "a regrettable and questionable decision".
"Some of the cinemas, like Méliès (...), had made the right choice of debate and awareness rather than censorship," he said, adding that the screening of the film should be accompanied by debates with feminist associations.
"I am also deeply convinced that the censorship of a work will never plead for any cause whatsoever," said Alexie Lorca, assistant to the culture of the city.
© 2019 AFP