ways to get out of it – Liberation

Cinema attendance has never been as low as last month in France. Faced with this alarming observation, an informal collective is proposing general states of independent cinema. An urgent initiative.

The rooms are almost empty. Cinema attendance painfully reached 7.4 million admissions in September, i.e. 20% less than in September 2021 and 34% less than in September 2019, before the pandemic, before confinement, and especially before the rise of platforms. This is the lowest level of attendance recorded since 1980, the first year of monthly statistics from the Center National du Cinéma. The extent of the crisis is therefore obvious, but if it is necessary to understand it further, we can include historical estimates, from before the CNC: according to these figures, the last year when so few French people went in the cinema was 1909. It is therefore high time to open our eyes and raise a cry of alarm. This is what a group of personalities in the sector, mainly from the world of independents, are doing, who are calling for an emergency meeting of the general states of cinema. Around a round table organized by Liberated, four of them explain how we got there, and suggest ways to get out of it. Above all, reinvent the model of French excellence instead of trying to ape the American model, and promote auteur cinema, which is conquering the whole world. Those in charge who now disparage Godard or Rohmer would do well to check the sales of their films internationally instead of advocating for the so-called mainstream productions that even the French no longer want. Then save the TV fee, which indirectly funded many of these films. And finally, to understand that there will be no point in rushing to imitate a model of platforms years after American producers have conquered and perfected it. We have to invent our own model, push our original creations, bring to life ideas that could not have been realized in Bollywood or New York. The mobilization for the Estates General of Cinema is a first step as encouraging as it is necessary.