Jeff Bridges, cult and frankly lit hero of the film The Big Lebowski or twilight cowboy from True Grit (two films by the Coen brothers) is also a photographer. Since 1967, he haunts his own film sets with his Magic F7 slung over his shoulder. In 88 films, the Oscar-winning actor for crazyheart in 2010, oscillating cheerfully between auteur cinema and planetary blockbusters, thus forged a second career. He offers, it is said, a collector’s collection of his photos to the teams of his films after each end clap.
It was by coming across one of these images on the Internet that Maïla Doukouré, the director of the three arthouse rooms at the Cinoches de Ris-Orangis (Essonne), understood that she was holding the work that was going to save the The half-mast facade of the building, a cold, soulless block from the 1970s. Many clicks and e-mails later, audacity, if not to say sass, did the rest. First with the New York publisher of Jeff Bridges’ photographic albums, then with his Californian agent. “They immediately accepted our proposal and gave us the rights to the image for free for two years, says the young woman. I believe that the health crisis had a lot to do with it: like a transatlantic solidarity between two worlds of cinema that do not want to die. »
Months of negotiations were however necessary to reach an agreement between the representatives of the star and the Greater Paris South conurbation, manager of the Robert-Desnos cultural scene, which houses the Cinoches. And then one day, the very high definition file arrived.
A mirror to the urban universe
Maïla Doukouré’s love at first sight photo was taken in 1991 by the actor on the set of Fisher King (Terry Giliam). We see, against the background of an American city skyline, a cinema crane on which are perched two characters separated by a camera. This nocturnal exterior nourished by intense whites and very strong grays acts as a mirror to the urban universe of Ris-Orangis which surrounds Les Cinoches. “It’s a mise en abyme of what our cinema represents, with its two characters against an architectural backdrop”, underlines Maïla Doukouré. Since the beginning of May, the work of the photographer has adorned the entire facade of the cultural center in the form of a giant tarpaulin measuring 22 meters by 11.
Both residents and users seem to be seduced by the performance. They discover that they themselves are, without knowing it, at the heart of the project. Because Jeff Bridges, without pretense and especially without the Hollywood sequins, was mainly interested in the sociology of the district, in the cinematographic tastes of the customers of the Cinoche, in its cultural diversity. “Many questions have been asked about this social theme. True to their reputation, the Americans wanted to know everything,” confides Maïla Doukouré, almost still surprised. So much so that they themselves demanded that the story end well.
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