Posted today at 12:19 a.m.

Under the white and banal vintage sign, two spectators wait before entering to see Little Palestine, of Abdallah Al-Khatib, mask on the nose. On this Friday at the end of January, the screenings of the La Baleine cinema follow one another almost empty: only one curious person attended the screening of Vitalina Varela, by Pedro Costa; two for Wendy and Lucia, of Kelly Reichardt, and as little for I was home, but…, by Angela Schanelec. Abdallah Al-Khatib’s film was a little more successful, with eight spectators. Only the two welcoming school mornings were full. Suffice to say that it is rather low water, in this Marseille arthouse cinema.

Like the big cinemas and other multiplexes in Marseille, this neighborhood cinema at 6^and borough is struggling to regain its cruising speed. While the pandemic has persisted for two years, with its procession of restrictions, closures, then curfews and the wearing of compulsory masks, the public is slow to return.

The establishment of Cours Julien, co-founded by producer Thomas Ordonneau and digital entrepreneur Cyril Zimmermann, is nevertheless known and appreciated. Its demanding programming, oriented towards young creation and documentaries, had succeeded, in barely eighteen months, in winning the loyalty of its audience of film lovers in the heart of this downtown district. Its restaurant-bar and its open terrace, essential to the survival of the place, also attracted young customers and thus supported the whole project. But the Covid-19 epidemic suddenly froze everything.

“40% drop in admissions »

“We had to remain closed for almost two hundred and fifty days. At the first reopening, in June 2020, we realized that many regular faces were missing. And we took the hit, with a 40% drop in admissions », supports Juliette Grimont, programmer of La Baleine. Bénédicte Hazé, events manager, adds: “We felt a little upturn in June 2021, and we believed it. But that leveled off in the fall, and the winter is difficult. We were unfairly in the eye of the storm when we were labeled “non-essential”. And today, I have the impression that we are a bit of a thermometer for the morale of the population, with this epidemic that never ends. » The “stop and go” imposed on all places of culture has left its mark in this room with 89 seats.

Opened in 2018, when the district was quite devoid of cultural places, the cinema-restaurant has accompanied the craze that the popular Cours Julien sector has since experienced. The gentrification of several districts of the city has done its work, and the look of the neighborhood has changed: next to the hall, a “communal” brasserie has been installed, a bar which also serves as a gallery, and other establishments. that are the delight of thirty-somethings populating the terraces of the large esplanade from the first fine days. The theater has also been deployed in a general movement that has seen Marseille, a city without cinemas, catch up with its thirteen facilities, including five multiplexes, but also five arthouses.

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