The network of arthouse cinemas Utopia, organized as a cooperative, now has seven franchises in the area. The latest, built near Troyes in Aube, is a model of sustainable cinema. With its wooden frame, its excellent straw thermal insulation, its biomass stove, its solar panels, its dry toilets and its low consumption projectors, it is self-sufficient in energy.
This concept is that of a cinema on a human scale, where one refuses to “illuminate and heat the void”, as director Anne Faucon explained to AFP. And in Pont-Sainte-Marie, Utopia has decided to go 100% green. It was not a long calm river for all that, far from it. The director even speaks of an obstacle course which will have lasted four years, before being able to inaugurate these four rooms which can accommodate 300 spectators.
A complicated financing
Although under-endowed with cinemas with a single CGR complex, the city of Troyes did not support the project to set up Utopia, put on the table by an elected communist in 2018. But the neighboring city of Pont -Sainte-Marie takes over the project through its mayor, Pascal Landreat. He proposes to install this cinema of a new genre on a military wasteland where an eco-district is growing. A 99-year lease at €80 per month is signed, the project can finally start.
Anne Faucon had to surround herself with partners and very committed little hands to succeed in carrying it out, despite the countless reluctance and ominous birds encountered on her way. She needs to raise 2.6 million euros, but she only gets 600,000 euros in aid from various organizations (European funds, departmental council, CNC), to which are added 100,000 euros raised thanks to financing. participatory. The rest ? More than 1 million euros of borrowing and an equity investment.
Hiring and a reasonable price of the place
To run this Utopia cinema, three hires have already been made and two more are planned for the short term. And to attract viewers, the recipe has already been found: audacious programming made up essentially of independent films broadcast in their original version. An anomaly for the region which, however, already has its fans. Indeed, in the absence of an offer of this type, the public is ready to travel to Pont-Sainte-Marie without worry. Especially since the pricing is affordable: €7 per seat, €50 for 10 entries.
Finally, the project is keen to maintain a social dimension: one of the rooms is reserved for “educational” screenings, while an evening inviting single people to the cinema is planned for Christmas. And Anne Faucon to hope that others take up this concept elsewhere in France. “It is a prototype with open source plans (…) If a small room like us succeeds, I say: take, improve! We will still have to go further”she told AFP.
The kind of initiatives which, perhaps, will encourage French spectators to return to dark rooms. With 155 million admissions, the year 2022 is – in terms of attendance – the worst ever recorded since 1990 in France. The fault with a lack of blockbusters, but, also, with high prices in period of inflation and crisis of the purchasing power.