The COVID-19 lockdown forced the team running Paris’ La Clef cinema to close their auditorium to moviegoers. So they hit on an alternative: Projecting movies onto the wall of an adjacent building.
“We said to ourselves: ‘If we can no longer show films to an audience inside a cinema, let’s take away the walls and show films outside,’” organizer Derek Woolfenden told reporters on Friday, shortly before the screening of 1955 Western Man Without a Star, starring Kirk Douglas.
Under the lockdown restrictions, Parisians are confined to their apartments except for brief outings to shop for food and exercise.
Photo: Reuters
However, they can catch the movie by looking out their windows or stepping out onto their balcony.
“We could feel a desire in the neighborhood for some sort of event, because there’s nothing left, the streets are empty, it’s very sad,” Woolfenden said.
The La Clef team took pains to engage the local community in its initiative: The titles to be screened each week are chosen in consultation with the neighbors.
“It’s great,” said Christine Davenier, an illustrator, who was watching the film from her balcony, where she sat propped up on pillows. “It takes us back to before, to screenings when we watched films all together.”
The La Clef officially closed its doors in April 2018, and the owners plan to sell the property.
However, since September last year the building has been occupied by an association of cinephiles and independent movie makers, headed up by Woolfenden, who oppose the sale and say they would stay put to ensure the building continues to serve as a cinema.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a