a cinema as beautiful as a truck

SIf you don’t come to Asterix, Asterix will come to you. By truck, moreover, Volvo brand, 17 meters long and fully converted into a cinema. The vehicle is parked in Neung-sur-Beuvron (Loir-et-Cher), this Tuesday, March 7: twelve people took place inside to attend, in the evening, the screening ofAsterix and Obelix. The middle Empire, by Guillaume Canet. There were thirty-five at 4 p.m. The Little Victories by Mélanie Auffret, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Maurice the fabulous cat, by Toby Genkel. Three screenings, around sixty spectators in all, in the heart of a village of 1,200 inhabitants: or how heavy goods vehicles contribute to cultural decentralization in rural areas.

Operated by the Centre-Val de Loire region through its cultural agency (Ciclic), the Cinémobile has no equivalent in France. A “real” movie theater has been recreated within its trailer. Red foam armchairs, gently sloping floor, heating in winter (air conditioning in summer), digital projector, trailers… All that’s missing are the toilets and the popcorn machine. Classified as art and essays, the 80-seat sideboard crisscrosses the region, throughout the year, with two other trucks of the same ilk. Located at least 20 kilometers from the first cinema, 46 municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants welcome the system, with one visit per month.

In Neung-sur-Beuvron – a former fortified village where Vercingetorix suffered a memorable thrashing against Caesar in −52, the time of Asterix – cultural events are rare enough (two shows a year at the village hall) not to not miss the passage of the Cinémobile. Commercial in an industrial laundry company, Nathalie Chevrier is one of the regulars: “When you have to take your car to go to the cinema, you know in advance what type of film you are going to see. Everything changes when cinema comes to you. Proximity and cheap tickets (6.20 euros full price) recreate a film club in the countryside. You easily accept being surprised by the programming”, explains the one who is also a municipal councilor. In a month, Cinémobile will offer my crimeby François Ozon, in Neung-sur-Beuvron, but also in Bazoches-les-Gallerandes (Loiret, 1,500 inhabitants) or in Sainte-Sévère (Indre, 800 inhabitants), the town where Jacques Tati filmed Celebration day (1949) – Tati who also gives his name to one of the three regional traveling cinemas (Carmet and Montand for the others).

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