The deconfinement is accelerating and since Monday, cinemas are reopening after three months of closure. Report in a Parisian neighborhood cinema where the fear of Covid-19 seems to have evaporated.
It’s as if the Covid-19 had almost disappeared… On this Tuesday afternoon in a neighborhood cinema in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, three masked retirees bought their tickets. Despite these three months of closure, Philippe puts this event into perspective: “I survived so many things that I couldn’t miss the cinema either!” However, on this second day of the reopening of dark rooms, the loyal public has already returned to enjoy the freshness of places like Pierre-Amboise: “Since confinement, I have watched various video-on-demand platforms, but it’s more fun to come in the hall. We live the event, we enjoy a good sound system, a big screen and we are plunged into darkness. Finally, it also allows you to leave your home. As I live in a small studio, it allows you to don’t stay on the couch.”
A return to normal? It would seem. According to Jennifer Monpays, deputy director of the Chaplin cinemas, the occupancy rate over the last two weekdays is equivalent to that of previous years. “It’s summer and the weather is very nice outside so it’s normal that we don’t have a lot of people, she explains. But our loyal customers come back without worries and sometimes even without the mask! We have to then give them a booster shot but they cooperate!”.
Changing sanitary measures
However, if the spectators do not seem to see any difference, the cinema has had to adapt to the imposed health protocol: impossible to wait inside the walls, the public is asked to wait outside; all escape doors are open to promote continuous air renewal; the morning sessions are canceled in this same spirit and the teams apply disinfectants; above all, the most glaring difference is the sometimes compulsory use of masks. “We came a week before the opening to prepare the premises, but Monday morning [NDLR : le jour de la réouverture] we suddenly learned that wearing a mask was no longer compulsory in the room, but only in the hall and the corridors, and that the capacity of the rooms was no longer reduced by 50% but that it was necessary to keep only one free space between different groups of spectators, she reports. We are happy it makes our life easier but we would have liked to know that before.”
The competition of the sun and the outdoors
A protocol that seems to align with that of the restoration. As for the lifting of the restriction on the number of places, it is enough to take a look in the room to understand that it only corresponds to reality. “There are never many people, blows a retiree, so I don’t worry more than that”. Around her less than ten people in a room that can accommodate a hundred. Summer period, competition with outdoor activities and splendid sunshine seem to keep the public away from screenings in closed rooms. Nothing extraordinary for the deputy director of the establishment, her establishments have obtained financial aid to make up for the shortfall in the administrative closure. She is more worried about the rest: “We will see at the start of the school year in September what the sanitary conditions will be, but we are sometimes sold out during film debates. Until then, we cross our fingers for having been right not too much worry about in the summer!” “I hope there won’t be a second or third wave, abounds for his part Pierre-Amboise. That’s why I’m enjoying it now all the more since it’s 30° outside and how cool the rooms are!”.
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