Paris (AFP)

Occupied for months, the Parisian cinema La Clef has found a buyer, ready to put several million euros for this temple of the 7th art.

But irreducible moviegoers continue the fight, convinced that the soul of the place is threatened.

A place of transmission since the 1970s, this two-screen cinema is located in the Latin Quarter, subject to strong real estate speculation.

He changed hands several times and made a place of his own by offering visibility to African, Asian or South American filmmakers little programmed elsewhere.

But the team was beaten up by the owner, the Caisses d'Epargne works council, decided to get rid of its property.

After months of an occupation defended by a plethora of personalities, from Cédric Klapisch to Jean-Luc Godard, a buyer has put 4.2 million euros on the table, committing to maintain the cinema.

Unexpected.

"We want to make a program that is both sharp and committed, in connection with our DNA, solidarity and the preservation of the environment", explains to AFP Nicolas Froissard, one of the leaders of this buyer, the SOS group, one of the largest associations in the social and solidarity economy (21,000 employees), present in employment, seniors, youth ...

Case settled?

The Home Cinema collective however has no intention of ending the occupation, a prerequisite for the sale to be effective.

"We still prefer to be expelled than absorbed by a group like that. We don't want to make money but to preserve the last associative cinema in Paris", gets carried away one of the spearheads of the occupation, Derek Woolfenden.

"They do not want to save the cinema at all, but to privatize the rooms for events, to make a start-up of the cinema and a real estate coup", he accuses.

And to highlight the personality of the founder of SOS, Jean-Marc Borello, a very close friend of Emmanuel Macron, present in the governing bodies of En Marche.

A scarecrow for these activists, who organize the continuation of the mobilization, in the reception hall of the cinema, looking like MJC from the 1980s, school tables and faded paintings.

- Pebble in the shoe -

SOS, whose ambition is to "demonstrate that economic performance could be used in the service of the general interest", shows its white paw.

Mr. Froissard denounces the trial of intent, and explains that as owner, he undertakes "in writing" to continue the cinema activity.

"Our discourse has always been to work with whoever wants to work with us. We guarantee total independence (in programming), we will have no say in it," he insists.

The details of the project have not yet been revealed, but the group can highlight a place dedicated to cinema and the suburbs, managed in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis).

Faced with the blockage, some turn to the town hall of Paris, very attached to its fabric of rooms, unique in the world.

The campaign promise to save the Key has not fallen on deaf ears, and some dream of a public preemption, in February.

The subject, pebble in the shoe of the majority, was raised Thursday at the Council of Paris ... "No commitment has been made on the maintenance of film activity in the long term, nothing can assure us that this is not a land operation, "Fatoumata Koné (EELV) warned.

Preemption is impossible, because there would be no "general interest" within the meaning of the law, retorts Carine Rolland, the assistant to the culture of the mayor (PS) Anne Hidalgo.

Not to mention that with a buyer who puts four million out of his pocket, the capital, faced with other cultural emergencies, should have struggled to justify its intervention.

"We have always said that we would support the activity of the collective and that we would ensure that a cinema of art and associative essay or social and solidarity economy continues", she summarizes.

"If we hadn't done so, today La Clef would be a supermarket."

© 2021 AFP