“Here, it’s a space of freedom! “ In his office perched at the top of the Odyssey, rocked by the slight tumult of the nearby Place Kléber, Faruk Günaltay announces the color. The director of the Strasbourg arthouse cinema is impatient to reopen the doors of his establishment soon, like other places of culture. After several months of frustration and incomprehension, his optimism is nevertheless measured. “We are very happy to turn this page but it is an obstacle course that awaits us. “
Spring, summer, fall? In seven months of closure, cinemas have had time to bet on the lifting of the ban on opening to the public. “We had made several more or less favorable hypotheses. Ideally, we would have reopened in April, in the worst case in September ”, remembers Mr. Günaltay. By cutting the pear in half, the government probably manages to satisfy the professionals in the sector. “I want to say: finally! We now hope that it will be a real recovery ”, comments Laurence Algret.
Preferring to see the glass half full, the director of the UGC-Ciné Cité de Strasbourg focuses on the good news, in particular the authorization to sell food to be consumed in the theater, as was already the case at the fall 2020. “We had to reopen at all costs, so we would have done without if it had been necessary, but it’s a relief, she concedes. Confectionery remains an important part of our income. ” A favor which does not however lighten the specifications of the rooms, forced to adapt their programming to health measures.
“Save the furniture”
If, for now, the curfew applies from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., it will be pushed back to 9 p.m. on May 19, then to 11 p.m. on June 9 before disappearing on June 30 – if the situation allows. During their first three weeks of resumption of activity, cinemas will thus have to give up the 20-hour screening, which attracts nearly one in four spectators. “We will undoubtedly have to bring forward the last screening of the day at 6.30 pm, but as long as it is possible to go to the cinema after office hours, that allows us to save the furniture”, estimates Mme Algret.
An additional unknown remains nevertheless as for the plasticity of this constraint. “If it is possible to use the ticket as a parking meter, this allows us to schedule films that end after the start of the curfew, so we have more leeway to develop our programming”, analyzes M. Günaltay.
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