It’s cinema that makes everyone else green with shame. In Pont-Sainte-Marie, near Troyes, some 200 km west of Paris, the first 100% eco-friendly cinema in France and perhaps in Europe, and why not in the world, has just opened.
All the elements converge towards this branding eco-responsible, from the straw insulation to the wooden walls, from the solar panels on the roof to the energy-efficient laser projectors, to the water recovery system and biomass heating. Even dry toilets contribute to the ecocine effort.
“I think that in the future, cinemas will come to ecology to save money, not necessarily for ethical values, but, regardless, the main thing is that we go there”, said in an interview Duty Anne Faucon, general manager of the establishment inaugurated in December. It was she who developed the mini-complex of some 850 square meters with four rooms.
The content is obviously in the image of the container. The programming remains entirely devoted to arthouse films without blockbuster Hollywood. We also do not use pop corn or sweets. It is the nightmare of the Guzzo cinemas.
La salle verte is the seventh in the Utopia network, dedicated to repertoire and quality cinema, and co-founded by Anne-Marie, Anne Faucon’s mother. “It’s not a family business after all,” she says. I didn’t get any favouritism. I am not the daughter of Bernard Arnault, what. »
Anne Faucon then explains at length the atypical career of her mother, born into a penniless family, who became a psychiatric nurse before reorienting herself by creating with sixty-eight film-loving friends, in 1971, a first independent cinema in a room lent by the Church in Aix-en-Provence. The hall then moved to an old church in Avignon and officially became Utopia. Expansion remains mainly concentrated in the south of France, notably in Bordeaux, Montpellier and Toulouse.
Good green common sense
Anne Faucon left this city after 25 years to launch her project to build a 21st century cinema further north.e century. She was negotiating with Troyes, considering a plan B, when she received the decisive support of the town hall of Pont-Sainte-Marie, already well committed to sustainable development, a small town pioneering “horse-mobility”, garbage collection getting used to it with a draft horse.
“From the start, I wanted to build an ecological room by demonstrating that it doesn’t necessarily cost more,” says Ms.me Falcon girl. In Toulouse, the architects kept telling us that we needed 30% additional budgets with this option. »
The construction of Utopia Pont-Sainte-Marie cost 2.5 million euros (3.4 million dollars), financed by loans at 60%. About 600,000 euros come from various levels of government, and 100,000 euros from citizens. The City ceded the land for a century.
The result is not eco-certified (like LEED), and Anne Faucon doesn’t want it. “I don’t want to ask for a label. This is another trick to make you pay. It’s like the organic certification of plastic vegetables that you find in supermarkets in December. Let’s say I’m for the common sense label. »
She also points out that to really know a movie theater’s bottom line, you have to look at the concrete and other construction materials, but also include its electric bills, all the junk food sold, “including corn modified by Monsanto », and the number of spectators received. “The best energy is the one you don’t consume,” she says. Having rooms on a human scale is good. »
All the choices made in Pont-Sainte-Marie go in this big green common sense. The furniture comes from flea markets and donations. The minicomplex composts at max. 2K projectors do without Avatar and other American bullshit in 3D”. Dry toilet paper is used to light the fire.
Theaters opened on December 21. Independent films make up 95% of programming, which generates 90% of revenues. In France, more than 1,300 general-interest cinemas receive state support (about ten million per year in total) by offering a minimum of 15% independent films, often screened at unattractive times.
The traffic is at the rendezvous in the model room, according to the director. Even at the counter, the astonishing adventure continues with its assumed values. Tickets can be purchased on site, the old fashioned way, not online and especially not at a machine.
“When a performance is full, we suggest another and explain our choices,” concludes Anne Faucon. There is no room for Xavier Dolan? We can turn our cinephiles towards a little less known film which has not had the same advertising luck. We have to queue at our place. We have the instinct of mammals, as Richard Desjardins says. We need to regroup. »