Louis, 16, was there. Despite his broken leg from football and his two crutches, the teenager came to attend the last cinema screening of the UGC Normandie on Wednesday June 12, 2024, a nonagenarian cinema located on the prestigious avenue des Champs-Elysées, in Paris. The teenager came to see La La Land by Damien Chazelle with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, a film that he “love it“.
“It’s the last screening of a cinema, a legendary place. Personally, I haven’t experienced it that much. But my parents told me the history of this place. (They) had lots of moments here. We came several times together. It’s full of memories”, the teenager confided to Franceinfo Culture at the end of a session whose end was scheduled for 10:45 p.m. However, bMany of those who attended remained in front of the room for a few more minutes, their eyes vague and nostalgic. Some took the opportunity to strike a pose, just to capture the moment on film.
The UGC Normandie, which offered the spectators of this session “a little concert” piano before the launch of the film and “a little ending clip”, continued to interact with its customers via screen outside. The credits for the room’s farewell operation, “Thank you UGC: 1 month for 50 years of history”, rolled. Since May 1, as part of this special programming, the cinema has presented great masterpieces of the 7th art every evening at 8 p.m. as well as a selection dedicated to children.
Under the hashtag #MerciUGC Normandie, many people expressed their attachment to the cinema. They had a month and a half to say their goodbyes, a period during which they were able to see or see again Toy Story, Rocky, Barry Lindon, Casino, Laurence of Arabia. Unique works and then sagas, the Harry Potterthe series of Matrix as well as that of Godfather or the films of recent Oscar winner Christopher Nolan – the Batman as well as’Inception And Insterstellar. This farewell period is “normal”estimates Erwan, 22, who attended the screening on Wednesday June 12.
“It’s important, plus cinema is doing less and less well. If we can celebrate it with great fanfare…”
Like many of those encountered at the end of the screening, he found the choice of Damien Chazelle’s feature film wise, for which the filmmaker won the Oscar for best director in 2017. “It’s an iconic cinema. End with La La Land, which is one of the most beautiful films in the world, it’s something”, says Erwan. “La la land for the last one, it was the film that was needed. Standing ovation for 10 minutes. It was good”, confirms Eric, 50, another regular at the room who works in the cinema industry. Satisfactory feedback for the room management. “The main thing is to make this closure an unforgettable and optimistic moment because the cinema does not stop tonight”, Romain Domec, cinema director at UGC Normandie, told AFP. Hence the choice of this “happy film”.
Joy, but not enough to completely make the ambient blues disappear. “That hurts the heart”, reacted on Wednesday a 59-year-old spectator who knows the room well. Sadness also for Maria 23 years old, “of Russian origin”, and his friends: Noël, 25 years old, Swede and Lauren, a 25 year old American. All three have lived in Paris for three years and work together. “It is ‘OUR’ movie theater, explains Maria. We came here very often, almost every weekend.” They will obviously find another one after closing, but Noël points out that they could come on foot to watch a film in a place that is still open.
“There was no need to plan things, he continues. You just had to walk to get here. We won’t be able to do it anymore and that makes me really sad. If the young man “believes to understand“The reasons for this decision do not necessarily mean that the pill works better.
“The Champs-Elysées should be a place of culture, not just a place dedicated to shopping. When I first came here as a child, there were plenty of cinemas here. Now, after this one closed, there will only be one left [le Publicis Cinema]”. Lauren thinks no less.
“What I appreciate in France is that there is always particular attention to culture, to how to make it accessible to everyone. For me, [cette décision] therefore makes no sense.”
LaurenFranceinfo Culture
It was last April that the UGC group announced the closure of the Normandie.after 90 years of existence, fifty of which under the UGC banner”, recalled the AFP. In question, “the drop in attendance” cinemas on the Champs-Elysées which would be due “mainly to the development of tourism and events” of the famous avenue.
The phenomenon would in turn have caused “an increase in rents”. “UGC Normandie occupies a central place in the history of UGC and cinema in France and around the world”, indicated Samuel Loiseau, general director of UGC cinema operations, in the press release announcing the disappearance of the theater. The information didn’t just affect spectators.
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The last sessions scheduled in the cinema were preceded by an intervention by the film crew. So on May 28, before A man and a womanthe public was able to share Claude Lelouch’s emotion. “I am both very happy this evening because many of you are here to see this film, which is almost 60 years old, and I am very sad because this cinema, which is one of the most beautiful cinemas in Paris, will disappear. I am doubly sad because (what) is the same age as me. She was conceived in 1937, like me. And so, I have the feeling of dying a little bit with this room”, declared the filmmaker, warmly applauded at the end of his sentence. Wishing to continue on a happier note, the French director announced the release date of his 51st feature film: November 13. A film that we would never seenot in this room” but in all the others in France.
In the credits of “one of the last films” by Lelouch, Kad Merad, Elsa Zylberstein, Françoise Fabian and Barbara Pravi. A casting “fantastic”for a film which, according to its author, has points in common with A man and a woman. “It’s also a very musical film, clarified Claude Lelouch, emphasizing the importance of music for him. “I have the feeling that it speaks to our irrational side, a little more than the script,” he explained. There is something divine in music.”. “The movie theater, Lelouch continued, is the most beautiful place in the world to dream” In “a very complicated world”. The dream, for the filmmaker, being the means of “endure the unbearable”. “Go to the cinema often!”further advised the filmmaker.
Advice followed by those who (re)came to see, in preview, the restored version of the 7 Samurai, the film by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, presented at Cannes Classics and released in theaters on July 3. Besides the joy of (re)seeing this epic adventure of peasants managing to convince warriors to protect them from highway bandits, it was the opportunity to (re)discover an intermission.
A break, now outdated, which should perhaps come back into fashion when we think of the length of the films currently offered in cinemas (3h37 for The 7 Samurai). With the screening of this Kurosawa film in black and white and under these conditions, spectators had already felt a touch of nostalgia, brought to its climax at the last screening. But Eric, 50, wants to be optimistic. “That’s life, he said. But it is still a monument that is dying. We live, we die. And then maybe(he) will be resurrected.”
An opera, Carmen, will still be broadcast on the evening of Thursday June 13. A few hours after the auction of the legendary armchairs of the room, letters of the current sign of the UGC Normandie as well as photos of actors and directors. The profits will be donated to the association Dream of cinema, said a press release from the UGC group.