Do we make a canvas? It is possible, but don’t forget the car keys. At the time of the health crisis, the rooms revisit the great classics and adapt.
It is indeed the return to the future of the famous concept “drive-in”, invented in the thirties in the United States and popularized worldwide twenty years later.
At the Lux, an arthouse cinema well known to the Normans, Gautier Labrusse has been on the top for two months.
It’s a bit in our DNA because we offer outdoor screenings every summer. We’ve already done drive-in. And there, it seems to be the only solution to share a collective cinema experience, while respecting sanitary measures. I also note that this initiative has been taken up in Germany or South Korea.
The drive-in, Caen-style
First, we had to convince the authorities. Before giving the green light, the Calvados prefecture made sure that the sanitary measures would be respected.
Then, Gautier Labrusse approached the town hall of Caen and Paul Séchaud, the manager of the exhibition center. “We couldn’t have done it without them.” Caen Event “gives us a big helping hand and the town hall supports us for the logistics”, he specifies.
So concretely, how will it go? Four times a week, at nightfall, head to the exhibition center. The session is open for 150 cars, by reservation, containing three people maximum. The price ? 20 euros. The sound will be transmitted via the radio, thanks to the help of the station 666.
Programming spotlight
It’s the aptly named Disney movie “Forward” which will launch the first week of screening on May 26. The programming is intended for the general public and may be subject to change depending on the weather.
But if the sky is mild, on May 28, the orphans of the Cannes festival will be able to console themselves by seeing THE great artistic success of the year, Palme d’Or and Oscar for best film. It is of course about “Parasite”, in its black and white version and in French.
May 29, “Judy” will make you hum “over the rainbow” all evening. Then on Saturday May 30, a comedy “10 days without mom” with Norman Franck Dubosc.
Trailer of the film “En avant” – Disney –
Gautier Labrusse nevertheless walks on eggs. If he is reassured, after reading the encouraging comments on social networks, he also begins to hear criticisms here and there. But for him, in Caen, “the most cinephile city in France by its offer and its attendance index *”, this project makes perfect sense.
It is not a commercial transaction. This will bring us zero and it will make our life more difficult, because we will get people out of partial unemployment. The best thing would be to do nothing if one reasons purely from an economic point of view. But it seems important to us to offer a cultural offer to the people of Caen. Anyway, we will stop when the rooms reopen. Gautier Labrusse, co-director of LUX in Caen
*: Attendance index in the Caen agglomeration = 7.7 admissions per inhabitant, ie 3 points more compared to the national average of urban units with more than 100,000 inhabitants, excluding Paris.
Drive-in: True or false good idea?
It’s a bit of a cold shower, since the federation of cinemas showed itself, this Saturday, unfavorable to drive-in, in a press release:
“The federation deeply regrets the media and economic damage which these demonstrations will cause which divert the spectators, the media, the local and national administration from the only combat to be led: the reopening of the rooms”
“I hope that these words will not dampen the distributors and that they will still authorize us to screen their films,” reacts Gautier Labrusse.
Despite the opposition expressed by the National Federation of French Cinema (FNCF) and in particular the request for compliance with administrative obligations (validation by the DGS / DGT …), the 1st screening session @DriveIn_Fest was held at Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux. https://t.co/oFVUHGLFvE
– French BoxOffice (@frenchboxoffice) May 16, 2020
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Operators and even spectators find that in 2020, this idea of ”cinema in the car” leads us against ecological considerations.
“In new cars, you will have to restart the engine every ten minutes to listen to the sound via the car radio”, notes a director of rooms.
A spectator from Rouen observes “the false good idea, all these cars next to each other at the time of the hunt for fine particles”.
Bordeaux, Cabourg, Cannes, Abbeville set to Drive-in
Despite these reservations, it seems that car culture is gaining ground. The Cabourg Romantic Film Festival, which is usually held in June, could also opt for drive-in in August. “You can imagine music concerts, too”, adds Gautier Labrusse.
Private festival, Cannes also announces the establishment of a drive-in on a parking lot facing the sea at 9:30 p.m., from Wednesday May 20 to Sunday 24, with in particular two previews: “The mum”, a comedy by Jean-Paul Salomé with Isabelle Huppert and “Singing Club” by Peter Cattaneo with Kristin Scott Thomas.
Pending the reopening of the rooms, perhaps “early July” said the minister, “everyone is looking for their cat” Cédric Klapisch would have said. Agnes Jaoui would surely have insisted on respecting “taste of others “.
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