In Château-Gontier, in Mayenne, an independent cinema is not completely closed, unlike all cultural places in France.

To continue to keep her establishment alive and to sell her stocks, the manager chose to sell the sweets and drinks that should have been offered to spectators.

Europe 1 went there.

REPORTAGE

Like all cultural venues, the dark rooms of cinemas are closed ... but not completely extinguished.

At the independent cinema Le Palace, in Château-Gontier in Mayenne, a surprising way was found to keep the light on a little longer.

Here, we sell the sweets that were originally intended for spectators.

"There are Coke, there are also all the Haribo candies, they cost one euro", informs Joëlle Hanot to a client who will finally leave with a dozen packets of candies.

"I am the merchant", she is still surprised at the microphone of Europe 1.

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"It brings a little life"

Behind her counter, the manager of the cinema would never have thought of such a conversion.

But his cinema no longer has a choice.

He must sell all his merchandise with a total value of 1,500 euros.

"The dates expire, we have to put it on sale," confirms Joëlle Hanot.

"At the same time, we are happy. It recreates a link: I see people, I have phone calls, e-mails, it brings a little life."

Behind the scenes too there is despite everything a little animation.

That day, Valentin, one of the three employees of the cinema, is responsible for turning on all the machines.

An action that he repeats several times a week.

"The cinema runs every day normally. So the projectors need to be turned on regularly. If we stopped running them, I'm not sure it would work again the day the cinema reopens," he explains. he.

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For the projectionist, this is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the magic of films on the big screen, the time of a trailer.

What reminds us that this independent cinema had reached 100,000 admissions in 2019, its record, before falling to less than 22,000 last year.